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Families Dixidae and Stenoxenidae

The little midges of the Dixidae resemble mosquitoes, but they do not bite. They all belong to the single genus Dixa, which is so distinct from the other Diptera as to constitute a group of family rank all by itself. We have less than ten species in this country. The Dixas seem intermediate between the mosquitoes and the crane flies. They are found in damp places in forests, and in the larval state are aquatic. The larva is considerably like that of a mosquito, and might by the careless observer well be taken for the larva of a mosquito of the malaria bearing genus Anopheles. The Dixa larva has fringes on the upper jaws like those in mosquito larva, but it differs in having leg-like projections from the first two segments of the abdomen. It is found in shallow water and breathes air as do the mosquito larvae. The pupa has respiratory siphons on the thorax just as does the pupa of mosquitoes.

Stenoxenidae is a family name proposed by Coquillett for a single little fly of curious venational structure-Stenoxenus johnsoni-which is known only from Delaware Water Gap, N. J.