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Spear-winged Flies

(Family Lonchopteridae.)

The flies which belong to this group have not the slightest general interest, but they are struturally very different from other flies, showing even more differences than are necessary to the establishment of the group as a separate family. They are very minute creatures, some of them being only one-twelfth of an inch in length, and they are also slender. But two species are known in this country, both belonging to the genus Lonchoptera, and both occurring also in Europe. They are common all through the summer in damp, grassy places, as on the banks of wellshaded streams. Their larvae apparently undergo very interesting transformations, but no studies have been made in this country and in Europe--the knowledge of entomologists dated back to some incomplete observations made by Sir John Lubbock as long ago as 1862--until within the past year de Meijere of Holland has described, with figures, the early stages of Lonchoptera lutea. The larvae live under leaves and decaying vegetable matter on the surface of the ground, and have the peculiar habit of transforming to what may be termed a semi-pupa or a wingless maggot-like creature within the last larval skin, subsequently transforming to a true pupa. The careful working out of the life history of these flies ought not to be difficult, and such careful work is decidedly needed.