MYCETOPHILlDiE. 
585 
stored potatoes and apples, this is probably only in cases where the apples 
or potatoes are already bruised or slightly decayed. Mushroom-growers 
have sometimes suffered heavy loss from their attacks. 
About a thousand species of Mycetophilidce are known, distributed 
all over the world. From India Van der Wulp records only four species, 
belonging to the genera Sciara, Mycetophila and Platyura, but there 
are in reality a very large number, more especially in the hills, where 
the flies are extraordinarily abundant, the conditions found there 
being exactly suitable for the larvse. A Sciara has been reared at 
Pusa from mushrooms, and members of this sub-family [Sciarince) are 
extremely common at Mussoorie and Simla, (fig. 378) where we have also 
found representatives of the sub-family Macrocerince rather common 
at light, these latter being conspicuous by reason of their unusually 
long antennae. 
The family has been monographed by Winnertz (Yerhand. Zool. 
Bot. Gles. 1863) and most of what is known of the larvae will be found in 
a paper by Osten Sacken (1886), reprinted from Proc. Ent. Soc., Phila¬ 
delphia, 1862, on “ The characters of the larvae of Mycetophilidae.” 
The determination of species is often rather difficult, as the specific 
characters are frequently minute and require very careful discrimination. 
The genera and sub-families are mostly distinguished by differences in 
the venation, which shows considerable variation in the family. The 
following table of sub-families is modified from Williston. (The Sciarince 
are now sometimes separated as a distinct family and called Sciaridce). 
1. Coxse moderately long Cross-vein looking like .. Sciarince. 
part of R 2 ; cubitus forked near base of wing. 
Coxse very; long Cross-vein not in same line as R 2 2 
2. Media arising near base of wing. Anal more or less 
incomplete. .. .. .. .. 3 
Media arising near middle of wing; Anal complete 4 
3. R x branched, the branch generally looking like 
an extra Cross-vein between R. R t and R 2 ; 3 
ocelli present .. .. .. Sciophilince. 
R 1} not branched, 2 or 3 ocelli . . . . Mycetophilince 
4. R 2 reachng the costa, and arising from R 3 at or 
near the Cross vein . . . . .. Mycetobiince. 
R 2 generally short and transverse, ending in R 2 5 
