LIBRARY

378
COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
The eggs, as observed by Withycombe (1924), are large, oval, smooth, with
a disk-like micropylar knob, creamy white in color, and covered with an adhesive
fluid to which particles of the soil adhere.
The larvre, described by Withycombe (1924) and Tillyard (1926), are cruciform
and curved and are similar in appearance to the white grubs of scarabreid
beetles. They have small heads, no eyes, and microtrichia and macrotrichia
over the surface. The legs are strong and adapted to digging in the sand and
soil. The tibire and tarsi of all legs are fused into one segment. The short,
straight, piercing mouth parts are unusual because of the great enlargement of
the maxillre. There are one pair of prothoracic and eight pairs of abdominal
spiracles. An odor similar to citronella, the common mosquito repellent, is
emitted. The lnrvre prey upon white grubs, which they closely resemble, as
well as upon other soil-inhabiting insects, and are therefore considered beneficial.
They pass thrOl.1gh five instars.
This very small family is composed of at least five genera and about 13 species.
Three genera, including It/zone Newman, and six species occur in Australia.
A genus and single species, Oliarces clara Banks, inhabits California,
and the genus Rapisma the Himalaya Mountains of Asia.
Family SISYRIDJE Handlirsch 1906 (Sis-yr'i-dre, from the Greek O'LU(Jpo.,
fur, goat's hair; referring to the hirsute covering of the body and wings).
Spongilla Flies.
The spongilla flies, as the adults are called, are small species measuring 6-
8 mm. in length and are usually fuscous or brownish in color, with a few long
hairs on the legs and body. The compound eyes are large, oceIIi absent, the
antennre about half as long as the fore wings, the mandibles and maxillre setiform,
labial palpi absent, and the claws single. The wing venation is simple
with few cross veins.
The eggs of Sisyra are very small, elongated, and somewhat resemble those
of Hemerobius. They ate laid in masses on objects standing in or overhanging
fresh water and may be covered with a silken web.
The larvre differ from most of the other species in the order in being aquatic
and in feeding upon living fresh-water sponges of the genera Spongilla, Ephydatia,
and probably others. They may also be fotmd on bryozoans and algre.
They may be greenish or brownish in color, with two rows of dorsal and two
rows of long lateral groups of hairs arising from body tubercles and seven pairs
of segmented abdominal gills. The mouth parts, long, needle-like, and slightly
recurved apically, serve well to pierce the bodies of the sponges upon which
they subsist. When mature the larvre seek the shore above the water line
and pupate in an oval loose double cocoon in the soil or under stones and
debris.
The family consists of some six genera and 20 species distributed throughout
the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, and South
America. The dominent genus, Sisyra Burmeister, is Holarctic, and Climacia
McLachlan is Nearctic, There are at least four species in Europe: Sisyra jus-