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Cosmopolitanism in Twenty-First
Century Fiction
 Kristian Shaw

Cosmopolitanism
in Twenty-First
Century Fiction
Kristian Shaw
University of Lincoln
Lincoln, United Kingdom

ISBN 978-3-319-52523-5 ISBN 978-3-319-52524-2 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-52524-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017933831

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,
whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation,
reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any
other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adapta-
tion, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter
developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu-
tional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Samantha Johnson

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For my family
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Completing this book has been a wonderful experience, and that is largely
due to the people who have helped me along the way. First and foremost,
I want to thank my PhD supervisor Nick Bentley for all his intellectual
advice and guidance both throughout and following my doctorate. He has
taught me how to become a better writer and academic, and has provided
encouragement throughout all stages of my career thus far. Many thanks
also to Timothy Lustig for his intellectual breadth and enthusiasm,
improving and refining the structure of this project for the better.
I could not have asked for a more helpful or knowledgeable support
network.
The research in these pages was made possible through the generosity
of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Their substantial funding
allowed me to dedicate countless hours to improving the quality and
depth of my doctoral research on which this book is based. I would also
like to thank the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute at
Keele University for supporting my project, providing internal funding
and introducing me to some wonderful colleagues. Anthony Mansfield in
particular provided much needed humour and insight during the doc-
toral process: I cannot imagine sharing an office with anyone else. It has
been a pleasure to teach and study in such a welcoming environment.
Kymberley Joy Warby offered constant encouragement and infinite kind-
ness – thank you.
Special thanks go to my commissioning editor at Palgrave, Ben Doyle,
for his advice and belief in this project, as well as his editorial assistants
Tomas René and Eva Hodgkin for their professionalism and guidance.

vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply indebted to Sara Upstone for providing generous criticism:

the book is infinitely stronger due to your input and careful reading of my
work (not to mention our candid discussions on contemporary literature
in general). I am also greatly appreciative to Emily Johansen for volunteer-
ing to read early versions of book chapters, and for offering key theoretical
insights on the nature of cosmopolitanism itself. Jason Whittaker gener-
ously allowed me to use the first few months of my new position at the
University of Lincoln to refine my research. Needless to say the writing
process was (relatively) painless as a result.
I have presented various sections or ideas from this book as conference
papers or keynotes at Keele University, the University of Lincoln, University
College London, the University of Brighton, Birkbeck College London,
Durham University, the University of Bolton and the University of the Arts
London. Numerous colleagues at these events have been vital in shaping my
thinking. Special mention goes to Aris Mousoutzanis, James Peacock,
Samuel Thomas and David James for tremendous constructive criticism
along the way.
My greatest debts are to my family. To my parents, who have offered
unconditional love and support, I am eternally grateful. To Katy, you have
provided much kindness and invaluable knowledge of academia. Thank
you for everything.
 CONTENTS

1 Introduction 1

2 ‘A Multitude of Drops’: The Global Imaginaries

of David Mitchell 27

3 ‘Global Consciousness. Local Consciousness’:

Cosmopolitan Hospitality and Ethical Agency
in Zadie Smith’s NW 67

4 ‘A Deeper Project’: Critical Cosmopolitanism

and Cultural Connectivity in Teju Cole’s Open City 103

5 ‘Solidarity by Connectivity’: The Myth of Digital

Cosmopolitanism 139

6 Conclusion 179

Bibliography 193

Index 209

ix
 NOTE ON THE TEXT

An early version of Chapter 2 was published as ‘Building Cosmopolitan

Futures: Global Fragility in the Fiction of David Mitchell’, in English
Academy Review 32.1 (2015): 109–23.
Sections of Chapter 3 were published as ‘“A Passport to Cross the
Room”: Cosmopolitan Empathy and Transnational Engagement in
Zadie Smith’s NW (2012)’, in C21 Literature Journal (2016).
An overview of the initial idea behind this project was published as
‘A Unified Scene: Global Fictions in the C21’, in the open access journal
Alluvium 4.3 (2015): n.pag.

xi
 ABSTRACT

The twenty-first century has been marked by an unprecedented intensifi-

cation in globalisation, transnational mobility and technological change.
However, the resulting global interconnectedness reveals the continuation
of deeply unequal power-structures in world society, often exposing rather
than ameliorating cultural imbalances. The emergent globalised condition
requires a form of narrative representation that accurately reflects the
experience of existing as a constituent member of an interconnected
planetary community.
This study of cosmopolitanism in contemporary British and American
fiction identifies several authors who demonstrate a willingness to forge
new and intensified dialogues between local experience and global flows,
and between transnational mobilities and networks of connectivity. The
theories and values of cosmopolitanism will be argued to provide a direct
response to ways of being-in-relation to others and answer urgent fears
surrounding cultural convergence. The study will examine works by David
Mitchell, Zadie Smith, Teju Cole, Dave Eggers and Hari Kunzru. By
envisioning how society is shaped by the engendering of shared fates
brought about by globalisation, the selected fictions by these authors
imagine new cosmopolitan modes of belonging and the development of
an emergent global consciousness founded on the cross-cultural interde-
pendencies of the post-millennial world.
Despite providing unique and divergent perspectives on the contem-
porary moment, the fictions indicate that cosmopolitical concerns and
crises weaken calls for more progressive and productive forms of harmo-
nious global interconnectedness, and retain a scepticism of more utopian

xiii
xiv ABSTRACT

discourses. Cultural relations are increasingly mediated through the

awareness of inhabiting a shared, but not unified, world. The study will
conclude by arguing that the selected fictions point towards the need for
an emergent and affirmative cosmopolitics attuned to the diversity and
complexity of twenty-first century globality.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

It is important to ask what critical perspectives might nurture the ability

and the desire to live with difference on an increasingly divided but also
convergent planet?
Gilroy 2004: 3

We now have to be responsible for fellow citizens both of our country and
fellow citizens of the world.
Appiah 2009: 88

According to Peter Boxall, there has been ‘an ethical turn in the fiction
of the new century’ reflective of the ‘contemporary global condition’ (2013:
141). Undoubtedly, the twenty-first century has been marked by an inten-
sification in transnational mobility, globalisation and unprecedented tech-
nological change. This study of contemporary fiction will argue that the
concept of cosmopolitanism provides a direct response to ways of living in
relation to others and answers urgent fears surrounding cultural conver-
gence. As Bill Ashcroft notes, ‘cosmopolitanism is being reinvented as the
latest Grand-Theory-of-Global-Cultural-Diversity’ (2010: 77). The various
models of cosmopolitanism evident in the selected novels in this study are
particularly relevant in responding to the contemporary environment, and
inform our thinking about how we may confront the interconnectedness
and interdependence of global citizens and spaces. Literature is a late arrival
to the critical study of cosmopolitanism, and yet the term is uniquely suited
to literary analysis. Kwame Anthony Appiah recognises that the novel form
functions ‘as a testing ground for [ . . . ] cosmopolitanism, with its emphasis
on dialogue among differences’; the novel itself being ‘a message in a bottle

© The Author(s) 2017 1

K. Shaw, Cosmopolitanism in Twenty-First Century Fiction,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-52524-2_1
2 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

from some other position’ (2001: 207, 223). Literary studies as a discipline
often employs cosmopolitanism as a synonym for the terms globalisation
and transnationalism. Accurate definitions of the concept differ from these
two interrelated terms by emphasising an ethical dimension, operating at
the level of the individual. Indeed, cosmopolitanism is a highly malleable
and multidimensional concept, leaving its specificities open to interpreta-
tion. For this reason, there is much debate on how the term continues to
defy a simple definition. By clarifying the concept and its usage in literary
studies, it is possible to enhance its analytical value in reflecting the cultural
processes of globalised life. Although the concept has predominantly
remained the domain of philosophy and the social sciences, this study will
suggest the emergence of a growing cosmopolitan consciousness within
literature as a direct result of post-millennial cultural conflict and fragility –
indeed, global crises can be perceived as catalysts for a tentative and critical
cosmopolitanism. The following chapters build upon this approach to
demonstrate how British and American fiction is beginning to imagine
new configurations of cultural identity, community and socio-political
interdependence to respond to accelerated changes in world society.
Despite their diverse subject matter, the selected fictions in this study all
engage with contemporary concerns facing the globalised world, from the rise
in transnational mobilities, to radical technological change, to the threat of
ecological disaster. Chapter 2 examines the global fiction of David Mitchell.
Both Ghostwritten: A Novel in Nine Parts (1999) and Cloud Atlas (2004) are
a mixture of differing cultures, literary styles and genres that reflect the cultural
relationality and complex globality of the contemporary moment. Through a
detailed analysis of these novels, the chapter will argue that Mitchell acknowl-
edges a rise in the interrelation of global and local flows. Developing this idea,
the next two chapters will concentrate on how cosmopolitanism specifically
relates to local communities and landscapes. Chapter 3 concentrates on the
urban suburbs of London in Zadie Smith’s NW (2012). It will be argued that
Smith’s limited geographical focus on north-west London (an area in which
she was born and continues to reside) intimates that the social constructs of
the family and local community are more conducive to developing ethical
values and meaningful social relations. Chapter 4 provides a transatlantic
comparison to Smith’s fiction by exploring the urban cityscapes of New
York in Teju Cole’s Open City (2011). By paying attention to the non-elite
mobilities of African migrants, Cole’s text reveals a critical cosmopolitanism
that questions the very nature of cultural empathy. Chapter 5 shifts the focus
of the study by addressing the role of digital communicative technologies in
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

facilitating cross-cultural dialogue in Dave Eggers’s The Circle (2013) and

Hari Kunzru’s Transmission (2004). However, these fictions also complement
Cole’s focus on non-elite mobilities by interrogating the capitalist exploitation
intrinsic to digital migrant labour, and the enforcement of Western cultural
values on non-Western societies. In discussing these works, this study will
therefore attempt to identify a trend in contemporary fiction to engage with
the cosmopolitan.

WHAT IS COSMOPOLITANISM?
This first chapter will return to a more detailed statement on the chosen
authors and novels discussed in the main body of the study, but first it is
necessary to examine a number of key concepts. Specifically, this chapter
will scrutinise the ways in which the term cosmopolitanism has been under-
stood, both historically and in the contemporary period. Cosmopolitan
theory itself stretches back to the Greek Stoics and is visibly apparent in
Immanuel Kant’s Enlightenment philosophy. The Stoic’s classical concep-
tion of the term introduced the idea that individuals may exist as citizens of
the world, mediating between new and existing loyalties, and balancing
local allegiances with an abstract commitment to global others. Kant, on
the other hand, tried to combine the philosophical concept with demo-
cratic forms of governance; his work questioned the necessary institutional
specifics responsible for allowing world citizens to share a common global
occupancy. Earlier conceptions of cosmopolitanism possessed this purely
normative edge, resulting in the term evoking connotations of utopianism.
The post-millennial environment requires a more critical investigation into
usage of the term in order to confront the fragility and conflict of cosmo-
political threats, as well as emphasising how the ethical ideals of cultural
cooperation and empathy may possess a pragmatic function in addressing
global inequalities. In recent years, cosmopolitan theory has re-emerged
through the philosophical and sociological work of Martha Nussbaum,
among others. Nussbaum’s claim that ‘we should give our first allegiance
to the moral community made up by the humanity of all human beings’
demonstrates a turn away from localised forms of belonging and member-
ship, neglecting the more realisable and everyday forms of cultural engage-
ment (1996: 7). Nathan Glazer identifies that Nussbaum’s proposed
application of a universal form of cosmopolitanism, reconfigured from
Stoic philosophy, neglects the fact that the Stoics were citizens of ‘a near-
universal state and civilization’ with ‘uniformity in rights and obligations’,
4 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

whereas the contemporary world is ‘radically different’, not least with

regards to cultural and socioeconomic inequalities (1996: 63).1 More
importantly, due to the progressive interdependence of national systems,
one cannot simply rely on a polarised binary between the spheres of locality
and globality. Although transnational mobilities, globalisation and tech-
nological advancement have reconfigured the means by which attachments
local or otherwise are fostered and developed, the Stoic model nevertheless
provides the moral compass through which new conceptions of cosmopo-
litan theory can navigate the concerns of globalised life.
The major problem with universal forms of cosmopolitan thought is
that they remain too utopian and abstract to be of any pragmatic use to the
post-millennium. In literary studies, however, the feasibility or practical
application of such frameworks is not restricted by the same reliance on
pragmatism as other disciplines, allowing the tenets of cosmopolitanism to
be explored across imaginative fictional space while retaining the ethics of
the theory itself. As Rosi Braidotti, Bolette Blaagaard and Patrick Hanafin
identify, ‘the cosmopolitan perspective is not in fact one that is accessible
through perception, only through imagination, because we cannot see the
whole of humanity’, thus being appropriate for fictional analysis (2013: 5).
Fiction provides the means by which we can identify with those different
to ourselves, appreciate shared aims and aspirations, and also acknowledge
common problems which need to be faced and overcome, making narra-
tive concerns universal. This study will emphasise how fiction is a unique
medium through which to imagine cosmopolitan reconfigurations not yet
conceivable or accessible in the contemporary moment. In doing so, the
following chapters will demonstrate the multiplicity of ways the globalised
world may be imagined, transformed, remembered, transnationalised and
deconstructed in literature. The main focus of this study, in spite of this
approach, assumes a realistic stance towards cosmopolitan engagement,
and draws heavily on the work of sociologist Ulrich Beck. Beck recognises
that the unique conditions of millennial society necessitate ‘a new histor-
ical reality [ . . . ] a cosmopolitan outlook in which people view themselves
simultaneously as part of a threatened world and as part of their local
situations and histories’ (2006: 48). Accordingly, ‘we must reorient and
reorganize our lives and actions, our organizations and institutions along a
“local-global” axis’ (Beck 1999: 11). In an attempt to answer how a
cosmopolitan outlook may serve a pragmatic function, in contrast to the
empty platitudes of ethical idealism, his research marks a break away from
more universal and utopian paradigms, paying attention to the cultural
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

asymmetries that govern global relations. Beck was also one of the first
theorists to recognise that a ‘cosmopolitan society means a cosmopolitan
society and its enemies’, acknowledging that there will always be those who
benefit less from globalising processes (2002a: 83 – emphasis added).
With this in mind, the concept does not necessarily involve ‘consensus’
but often ‘conflict’, as global communities ‘enter into mutually confirming
and correcting relations’ in an effort to mediate between diverse perspec-
tives and heterogeneous cultures (2006: 60). Contemporary fiction is
beginning to answer such reasoning, demonstrating how a networked
culture of global flows opens up spaces of cooperation as well as conflict,
as new potentialities for connectivity are tempered by a new awareness of
global risk. It is therefore necessary to examine how the authors discussed
in this study identify and tackle the present conditions of the emerging
twenty-first century, and also how the future will be shaped by the shared
consequences of cultural interdependence. Indeed, an increased awareness
of global others emerges as contemporary cosmopolitanism’s dominant
mode. Several of the fictions in this study, predominantly the works of
Mitchell, consequently imagine coordinated strategies of collaboration
that respond to the inherent common problems which cultural and cos-
mopolitical interconnection brings.
One of the key concerns in clarifying the usage of cosmopolitanism is
identifying the ethical ideals associated with the concept. Steven Vertovec
and Robin Cohen attempt to both pin down its meaning and acknowledge
its multiplicity, defining it as: ‘a socio-cultural condition’ arising as a result
of contemporary globalising processes; ‘a kind of philosophy or world-
view’ that acknowledges the common values existing between all humans
regardless of race or affiliation; a project aimed towards ‘building transna-
tional institutions’ that override the potency of the nation-state; a ‘political
project for recognizing multiple identities’ and the multiple allegiances a
citizen feels with regards to local, national and global concerns; ‘an attitu-
dinal or dispositional orientation’ that demonstrates an openness to cul-
tural experience and otherness; or simply ‘a mode of practice’ that
acknowledges and embraces the internal effects of globalisation on cultures
and communities (2002: 9). The following chapters will draw upon these
definitions, as well as those of other theorists, in attempting to identify the
various manifestations of the term operating in the selected fictions.
Crucially, while much research has predominantly focused on cosmopoli-
tanism as the purview of nation-states and governmental organisations, this
study shall suggest that the term is the purview of ethical agency.2 Literary
6 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

fiction, because of its ability to present characters’ points of view and

subjective experiences of the world, is a particularly appropriate medium
for conveying the individual’s relationship towards the lived experience of
different environments and cultures. In this way, cosmopolitanism involves
an active ethical agency and emphasises the importance of affective practice
towards establishing cultural attachments. As Zlatko Skrbiš and Ian
Woodward emphasise, a socio-cultural disposition of openness is particu-
larly important and requires a ‘performative dimension’ that reveals the
empathetic outlook of global actors (2013: 27). Pnina Werbner comple-
ments this approach, considering cosmopolitanism to involve ‘reaching out
across cultural differences through dialogue, aesthetic enjoyment, and
respect’, and necessitates ‘living together with difference’ (2008b: 2). In
the search for a term that simultaneously reflects both the diversity and
cultural interdependence of the globalised world, cosmopolitanism seems
to be an exceptionally fecund appellation. Following this reasoning, the use
of the term ‘cosmopolitan’ in this study will be twofold, referring to both
culturally-diverse societies and the practice of ethical values traditionally
associated with the term in general. Defining cosmopolitanism in this
fashion allows for dialogue and overlap with the usage of the term across
the social sciences and complements existing approaches towards unpack-
ing its specific ethical ideals and values.
That being said, no matter how the concept and its ideals are defined,
when confronting the deeply unequal cultural and political systems in the
age of globalisation it becomes clear that ‘cosmopolitanism is the name not
of the solution but of the challenge’ (Appiah 2006: xiii). More realisable
and pragmatic forms of cultural engagement are necessary in facing the
challenges of an increasingly interconnected world. With this in mind,
Appiah correctly adopts a partial cosmopolitanism which rejects the
‘exalted attainment’ of classical models, instead simply positing that ‘in
the human community, as in national communities, we need to develop
habits of coexistence’ (2006: xvii). Gerard Delanty furthers this pragmatic
modern conception of the concept, claiming it provides ‘a normative
critique of globalization’ which accepts that while the contemporary
world ‘may be becoming more and more globally linked by powerful global
forces [ . . . ] this does not make the world more cosmopolitan’ (2012a: 41;
2012b: 2). He goes on to argue that the concept offers social theory a
means of engaging with emergent forms of belonging ranging from ‘soft
forms of multiculturalism to major re-orientations in self-understanding in
light of global principles or re-evaluations of cultural heritage and identity
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

as a result of inter-cultural encounters’ (2012a: 42). On this basis, it should

be emphasised that cosmopolitanism is not simply a condition of rootless-
ness or hybridity (as it is so often perceived in literary studies especially),
but rather a process of creative engagement between peoples and cultures
in developing an openness to forms of alterity and the negotiation of a
more interdependent world.
Cosmopolitanism, then, offers new forms of identification aside from
merely communal or ethnic allegiances, and becomes a ‘project of citizen-
ship that can cope with subjects’ multiple affiliations [ . . . ] as an alternative
to “tired” models of multiculturalism’ (Germain and Radice 2006: 112). By
the same reasoning, the concept should not suggest an emergent nomad-
ism, devoid of connectivity or belonging to territorial space; instead, this
study follows Bruce Robbins in emphasising the situatedness of cosmopo-
litanism, dependent on ‘a density of overlapping allegiances rather than the
abstract emptiness of non-allegiance’ (1998a: 250). The pragmatic
approach proposed in this study acknowledges the necessity for discord
and antagonism in cross-cultural community-building (whereby cultural
mingling rejects definitive assimilation) and echoes Beck’s assessment that
the ‘everyday experience of cosmopolitan interdependence is not a love
affair of everyone with everyone. It arises in a climate of heightened global
threats, which create an unavoidable pressure to cooperate’ (2006: 23).
Ethical agency regarding openness to the world and hospitality to otherness
should avoid the need for homogeneity, while retaining the positive ideol-
ogy at the heart of the concept. Given cosmopolitanism’s multidisciplinary
nature, the chapters engage with sociological, political, anthropological and
literary theory to reveal the pluralistic frameworks surrounding its usage.
The imaginative representations of the globalised world articulated in the
fictions will be argued to provide a direct response to new developments
confronting the contemporary moment.
In spite of cosmopolitanism’s more optimistic connotations, it must be
acknowledged that the cultural interconnectedness of global interdepen-
dencies fails to naturally engender a resultant ethical response to radical
inequalities of access. As Jonathan Xavier Inda and Renato Rosaldo argue,
the world is not ‘a seamless whole without boundaries. Rather, it is a space
of structured circulations, of mobility and immobility. It is a space of dense
interconnections and black holes’ (2008: 35). Developing this thought, this
study will interrogate who exactly may be termed a ‘cosmopolitan’ in these
selected fictions. In Ulf Hannerz’s pioneering essay, ‘Cosmopolitans and
Locals in World Culture’, he proposes that ‘cosmopolitans’ are an elite
8 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

sector of society who possess the means to enjoy global mobility. Through a
sustained concentration on localised engagement and belonging, the fol-
lowing chapters will argue against Hannerz’s false dichotomy between so-
called ‘cosmopolitans’, whose affluence permits a freedom unhindered by
national borders or geographical distance, and ‘locals’, who remain
restricted by socioeconomic or cultural immobility (1990: 238).
Hannerz’s reasoning accounts for the mobile practices of Western elites,
but fails to address the day-to-day cultural practices of global others.
Instead, the fiction of Mitchell, Smith and Cole will demonstrate that
cultural convergence and deterritorialisation of territory can result in an
individual’s life becoming subject to global forces without even leaving their
locality. Mitchell and Smith in particular imagine ‘glocal’ spaces in which
the dynamic tension and creative interplay of global and local systems
complicate existing forms of belonging and questions of cultural identity,
demonstrating how cosmopolitanism can be integral to parochial cultural
encounters and can operate within localities.3
Moreover, cosmopolitanism should concern itself with non-elite citi-
zens and unprivileged positions, in order to prove its inherent value as a
pragmatic and applicable social concept. Tellingly, Hannerz’s positioning
of cosmopolitanism as an elite practice contradicts his statement that the
concept ‘is first of all an orientation’ that one can assume (1996: 103). His
proposed binary (of cosmopolitans and locals) fails to acknowledge both
the emergence of non-elite agencies arising from the progressive empow-
erment of immigrants and refugees, and, more importantly, the centrality
of ethical agency that makes cosmopolitanism so much more than a con-
dition of transnational mobility. Nor should we agree with Hannerz’s
reasoning that cosmopolitanism ‘has to do with a sense of the world as
one’ (2007: 83). He begins his seminal essay with the bold claim that ‘there
is now a world culture’, neglecting the very multiplicity and heterogeneity
of cultures that remain marginalised by Western hegemonic structures
(1990: 237). Such optimism perceives the world to already exist in a fully
globalised state, rather than in the process of coming to terms with pro-
gressive global interconnectedness. Cosmopolitanism is vital to such pro-
gressive interaction, involving the mediation between diverse lifeworlds
and cultures, while proposing that a potential cross-cultural dialogue may
be established that moves beyond hegemonic discourses. Accordingly,
David Held argues that only by adopting a cosmopolitan outlook may we
accommodate ourselves to ‘a more global era, marked by overlapping
communities of fate’ (57). Proposing a unified global culture merely
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

strengthens the criticism that cosmopolitan theory envisions an unrealistic

(if well-intentioned) form of universal harmony that glosses over socio-
economic inequalities in favour of a Western vision of cultural homogeni-
sation or assimilation. For this reason, many still perceive cosmopolitanism
to remain a Western elitist paradigm, sustaining and replicating ideals first
espoused in colonial projects. The study will show that the works of
Mitchell, Cole and Kunzru are fundamentally at odds with Western or
idealised visions of a harmonious global culture, and challenge the cultural
discrepancies governing the contemporary moment.

GLOBALISATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS

Globalisation is intimately tied up with contemporary forms of cosmopo-
litanism and the two terms complement one another in several ways.
Roland Robertson defines globalisation as ‘the compression of the world
and the intensification of a consciousness of the world as a whole’ (1992:
8). This consciousness has a direct influence on the emergence of ethical
orientations, activating new connectivities and complex forms of cultural
belonging. As Paul Hopper argues, globalisation encourages and gener-
ates the rise of cultural engagement rather than merely reinforcing isolated
nationalistic, parochial or ethnic frameworks: ‘people in a global era can
potentially foster attitudes and outlooks that transcend national bound-
aries. Greater geographical mobility ensures increased contact with differ-
ent cultures, and greater familiarity might develop understanding, insight
and even tolerance’ (2006: 54). Globalisation, while not a natural catalyst
for empathetic dispositions, holds the potential to be a facilitator of
cultural convergence, acting as a potent mechanism in the spread of ethical
values, and opening established national allegiances or ethnic ties up to a
more cosmopolitan ethos.
Through the penetration of global forces into local lives and landscapes,
communities become shaped and defined by how they respond to cultural
interdependence, leading Zygmunt Bauman to conclude that ‘we are all
being “globalized”’ (1998: 1). In this regard, cosmopolitanism emerges as a
response to globalisation. Following Walter D. Mignolo, the terms are
distinguishable in that while globalisation concerns ‘a set of designs to
manage the world’, cosmopolitanism specifically denotes ‘a set of projects
toward planetary conviviality’ (2000: 721). Yet cosmopolitanism should not
be perceived as a universal remedy to the troubles of globalisation, nor
should a dichotomy exist between individual cosmopolitan agency on the
10 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

one hand, and institutional frameworks for implementing global processes

on the other. The various fictions examined in this study demonstrate
how individuals and communities both resist and work through globalising
processes, individually and institutionally, to define new ways of being in the
world. Stuart Hall claims that such global interdependencies ‘constitute a
profoundly new historical moment. They may even constitute the moment
when such a universal vision of belonging is potentially realisable’; however,
he appreciates that in the contemporary era interconnectedness is still based
on a ‘structure of global power, and therefore of global or transnational
inequalities and conflicts rather than the basis of a benign cosmopolitanism’
(2008: 345, 346). Globalisation will therefore be positioned as both an
economic and cultural phenomenon, responsible for engendering an emer-
gent convergence culture of mutual dependence, while simultaneously
deepening radical inequalities of access. An increased awareness of cultural
otherness understandably reveals the asymmetrical power relations govern-
ing globalised life. For this reason, Mike Featherstone is wary of positioning
globalisation as synonymous with universalism. Conceptualising the globe
as ‘a single place’ creates ‘a sense of false concreteness and unity’; instead,
global culture should involve ‘heaps, congeries, and aggregates of cultural
particularities juxtaposed together on the same field’ (1996: 70). Linking
the idea of universalism to globalisation implies a form of homogenisation
which neglects the heterogeneity of world cultural experience (often arising
from active resistance to globalising processes). Globalisation is ultimately a
complex process that leads to forms of exclusion and segregation as much as
interconnection and integration. With this in mind, literary critics Peter
Childs and James Green rightly argue that globalisation ‘in literature is not
best seen as an aesthetic representation of the universal in the local, but as a
fiction staged against an awareness of the interconnected, interdependent,
but unequal world’ (2013: 2). It is only by working through globalising
discourses that cosmopolitanism may offer new outlooks on the twenty-first
century condition, establishing new forms of personal and communal
connectivity, from the local scales of daily life to the abstract levels of
planetary togetherness.
Although cosmopolitanism is often perceived as a synonym for glo-
balisation, Ulrich Beck and Natan Sznaider focus on the local/global
dynamic to distinguish the terms: globalisation occurs ‘out there’, while
cosmopolitanisation involves an internalisation of globalisation and ‘hap-
pens “from within”’ (2010: 389). Such internalisation enables cosmo-
politanisation to operate as ‘a non-linear, dialectical process in which the
 1 INTRODUCTION 11

universal and the particular, the similar and the dissimilar, the global and
the local are to be conceived, not as cultural polarities but as intercon-
nected and reciprocally interpenetrating principles’, which force indivi-
duals to acknowledge ‘the real, internal cosmopolitanization of their
lifeworlds and institutions’ (Beck 2006: 72–3, 2). Despite this, the
criticism remains that global theories of cultural interaction retain an
apparent disregard for world citizens who are unable to participate in the
global arena or for whom mobility is not an option. The works of Smith
and Cole address this limitation by revealing contemporary forms of
cosmopolitanism to be as intimately concerned with local contexts as
much as transnational mobilities, interrogating pragmatic forms of
engagement by non-elite citizens. Appropriately, Beck acknowledges
that cosmopolitanisation of territory reveals an awareness of ‘the
dynamics of global risks, of mobility and migration’ engendered by an
engagement with transnational concerns in localised settings (2008: 27).
For example, Cole’s fiction reveals the ways by which parochial settings
operate as microcosmic analogies for the global relations of the wider
world. Crucially, however, borderlessness is no longer a necessary
requirement for cross-cultural interaction, with many of the tensions
and concerns raised as a direct result of nation-state allegiances or local
ties. Rather, this study follows Robbins in perceiving cosmopolitanism to
involve an inscription of ‘(re)attachment, multiple attachment, or attach-
ment at a distance’ (1998b: 3). What the fictions discussed in this study
share is an embrace of wider connectivities, operating alongside existing
bonds, in formulating a sense of global belonging, and demonstrate the
emergence of a critical cosmopolitan outlook that specifically interro-
gates assumptions regarding ethnic heritage or racial grouping.
As Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri suggest, globalisation ‘is not one
thing, and the multiple processes that we recognize as globalization are
not unified or univocal’ (2000: xv). This study will therefore attempt to
address the context-specific manifestations of globalising processes in the
disparate fictions, questioning whether these forces foster a more cosmo-
politan outlook – concerning a greater understanding and empathy for the
lives of cultural others, coupled with an acknowledgement of the necessity
for cross-border interdependencies – or create resistance towards wider
allegiances and cultural attachments. Similarly, while this study will follow
Werbner in acknowledging that globalisation can be perceived as the
‘(mainly Western) spread of ideas and practices’, and cosmopolitanism
involves an inherent ‘complicity with Western hegemony’, it will be
12 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

argued that the twenty-first century environment offers an unprecedented

moment whereby the formation of new cross-border dependencies and
associations of peoples, goods and communications activates an ethical
response to the lives of others (2008b: 2; 2008a: 49). Attempting to
ostracise or ignore the fate of fellow citizens simply ensures their fates
invariably become our own, and cultural relations are increasingly fostered
through an awareness of inhabiting a shared, but not unified, world.
Globalisation, then, ‘has become central to understanding the complex
transformations reshaping social, political, economic and cultural spheres
at the beginning of the new century’, and is integral to any discussion of
ethical relationality in contemporary fiction (Childs and Green 2013: 3).
Moreover, globalisation is especially pertinent to any discussion of con-
temporary literature from Britain or the United States – elite nation-states
that are subject to unprecedented levels of globalisation and transnational
mobilities.4 As Inda and Rosaldo argue, ‘the nation-states of the West
have become homes to a host of diverse and sometimes incommensurable
cultures [ . . . ] They have developed into sites of extraordinary cultural
heterogeneity’ (2008: 23). Further, English is undoubtedly a global lan-
guage, mirroring globalisation in its imposition of a unitary code con-
stantly being adapted to specific cultures and localities, justifying this
study’s concentration on British and American fiction.
The cultural connectivities revealed in the work of David Mitchell
correspond to Hardt and Negri’s notion of the ‘multitude’: ‘a network
that provides the means of encounter so that we can work and live in
common’ (2004: xiv). In their two interrelated works, Empire (2000) and
Multitude (2004), Hardt and Negri position the multitude as operating in
opposition to dominant forms of globalisation and capitalist exploitation,
which they term ‘Empire’. While Empire represents the rampant forces of
Western homogenisation, the multitude is a counterforce offering a form
of liberation through heterogeneity, being ‘composed of innumerable
internal differences that can never be reduced to a unity or a single
identity’ and offering ‘different ways of living; different views of the
world’ (2004: xiv). They acknowledge, however, that for many the notion
of the multitude is arguably only applicable to the Western world ‘and
cannot apply to the subordinate regions in the global south: “You are
really just elite philosophers from the global north pretending to speak for
the entire world!”’ (2004: 226). Yet by demonstrating how the multitude
responds to non-elite concerns and practices, they reveal how the concept
is composed of these new ‘creative subjectivities’ that arise as a result of
 1 INTRODUCTION 13

globalisation, forming ‘constellations of singularities and events that

impose continual global reconfiguration on the system’ (2000: 60). The
challenge of realising the multitude thus reflects the challenges to cosmo-
politanism itself. By addressing how non-elite migrant workers are com-
plicit in and affect the global system, the contemporary forms of
cosmopolitanism proposed in this study attempt to escape the worse
charges of Western elitism, revealing how the interdependencies of the
globalised world are beginning to override cultural inequalities and domi-
nant power-structures.5

TRANSNATIONAL MOBILITIES AND DIGITAL COMMUNICATION

As previously stated, the subversive potential of the multitude will be made
most apparent in the fictions of Mitchell, where individuals and commu-
nities find themselves directly at odds with destructive globalising processes
and the forces of a metaphorical ‘Empire’. It will also be argued that the
inclusion of digital forms of migrancy and non-elite workforces in the
fiction of Kunzru strengthen this reconfiguration of Western hegemonic
structures. Hardt and Negri position the internet as a prime ‘model for the
multitude because, first, the various nodes remain different but are all
connected in the Web, and, second, the external boundaries of the network
are open such that new nodes and new relationships can always be added’
(2004: xv). After all, globalisation concerns ‘the creation of new circuits of
cooperation and collaboration that stretch across nations and continents
and allow an unlimited number of encounters’ (2004: xiii). Such net-
worked collaboration does not lead to a state of homogeneity, but rather
‘provides the possibility that, while remaining different, we discover the
commonality that enables us to communicate and act together’ (2004:
xiii). Hardt and Negri emphasise that it is not enough to merely resist the
worst excesses of globalising forces, but rather ‘to reorganize them and
redirect them toward new ends’ (2000: xv).
Undoubtedly, one of the main factors in establishing and fostering
cultural attachments is the rise in transnational mobilities as a direct conse-
quence of globalisation. Vertovec defines transnationalism as ‘the existence
of communication and interactions of many kinds linking people and
institutions across the borders of nation-states and, indeed, around the
world’, thereby problematising the overlapping relationship that exists
between transnationalism, globalisation and cosmopolitanism (2003: 312).
Cosmopolitanism should be distinguished from transnationalism as the
14 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

presence of transnational communities does not suggest that ethical ideals are
practised or promoted; it is merely a state of cultural movement. Similarly,
exposure to otherness and diversity through mobility is not an inevitable
precursor to ethical engagement. There is instead a valid argument that
transnational mobility merely results in the emergence of superficial cultural
engagement, based on Western aesthetic spectatorship. We can term such
actions ‘faux-cosmopolitanism’, to be grouped with the growth in tourism
and business travel, merely expressing ‘a kind of ersatz benevolence’ by
‘superimposing a wider, allegedly global culture on more local cultural
practices’ (van Hooft 2009: 11). Cosmopolitanism is also often conflated
with mere multiculturalism, yet Annemarie Bodaar correctly differentiates
the terms by suggesting that multiculturalism denotes rigid ‘adherence to the
culture of the group’ whereas cosmopolitanism concerns the formation of
‘loose and multiple’ socio-cultural ties that exceed the fixed boundaries
associated with ethnicity alone (2006: 171). While multiculturalism implies
a form of homogeneity at the group level, cosmopolitanism explores hetero-
geneous forms of belonging that arise through acts of individual ethical
agency. Further, it will be argued that cosmopolitan outlooks are not the
result of an allegiance to one territorial space, nor are they necessarily based
on the idea of nomadism, because such a view neglects the relevance and
impact of belonging and place and suggests a privileged view from nowhere
in particular. The issues, then, are not whether individuals are increasingly
transnationally mobile, but whether such mobility is a catalyst in the forma-
tion of new connectivities and ethical subjectivities towards others, and the
position the novels implicitly (or explicitly) take on this issue.
Another key distinguishing feature of contemporary cosmopolitan theory
is the rapid acceleration of digital communicative technologies. The speed
and immediacy with which digital technology now links the wider world
forges dialogues and connectivities that have no precedent. Such technolo-
gies reformulate global relations and lead to the construction of new virtual
communities that are founded on non-corporeal connections and override
geographical or cultural divides. Gavin Kendall, Ian Woodward and Zlatko
Skrbiš support this claim, arguing that contemporary forms of cosmopolitan-
ism differ from classical models because technology ‘enables a vital dimension
of the cosmopolitan experience – to move beyond the cosmopolitan imagi-
nation to enable active, direct engagement with other cultures’ (2005: 1).
Proponents of digital communication regard the internet as the means of
promoting cultural understanding and awareness of otherness, forging con-
nections between global citizens who will never meet face-to-face. Through
 1 INTRODUCTION 15

an analysis of Eggers and Kunzru’s work, however, it will be argued that the
globalising flows of digital connectivity simultaneously function as a new
form of cultural imperialism, strengthening rather than reducing the global
inequalities of twenty-first century life.

LOCATING LITERARY COSMOPOLITANISM

This study draws on the work of literary critics who have identified the
relevance of cosmopolitan theory to literary studies and the humanities in
general. Recent works by Amanda Anderson, Jessica Berman and Rebecca
Walkowitz have examined the presence of philosophical cosmopolitanism
within nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature.6 However, none of
these works confront aspects of cosmopolitanism that are unique to the
globalised present. Anderson, for instance, explores a critical detachment
unique to Victorian literature, while Berman concentrates on alternative
forms of community in modernist fiction, engendered by shared experi-
ence and resistance to dominant patriarchal discourses. Walkowitz, on the
other hand, argues that late-twentieth century literary cosmopolitanism
relies on ‘emphasizing detachment from local cultures and the interests of
the nation’ (9). This study will instead retain a focused analysis on con-
temporary fictions that reflect the increasingly networked structure of the
globalised world. The intensification of social interconnectedness, trans-
national mobility and digital communication ensures globalised life
infringes upon, but does not remove the importance of, local experience.
Imbuing cosmopolitanism with these parochial, local and quotidian con-
notations is not antithetical to use of the term itself – all spaces are now
subject to, and offer the potential for, cultural engagement.
In this sense the study builds upon the work of Berthold Schoene and
Fiona McCulloch, whose works assume a more modern approach, inter-
rogating how British fictions respond to the contemporary moment.
Schoene’s The Cosmopolitan Novel, for instance, argues that the nation’s
historical complicity in imperialism and colonialism marks Britain as a prime
example of cosmopolitan cultural relations. He identifies authors as diverse
as Jon McGregor, Arundhati Roy and Ian McEwan to be indicative of this
trend. Concentrating on the importance of cosmopolitanism to nation-state
paradigms, Schoene recognises that narrative imaginings of global commu-
nity in British fiction are increasingly localised and pragmatic, tending away
from a reliance on utopian naiveties. His approach consequently avoids the
postcolonial scepticism of more global forms of cosmopolitan belonging.
16 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

McCulloch, on the other hand, perceives globalisation as strengthening

ethical calls for a planetary togetherness that operates in opposition to
ethnic, feminist and environmental inequalities. She also provides a response
to Schoene’s work, criticising his ‘phallocratic’ attempts to ‘pin down and
fix a definition to a concept that should remain open to dynamic synergies’
(going so far as to accuse both his authorial choices and even his book cover
of pandering to masculinity and anthropocentricism) (2012: 7). McCulloch
acknowledges that ‘there is a glocal impetus to cosmopolitanism as each
localized community creates empathetic links beyond its own borders’,
marking a movement away from more rootless forms of classical cosmopo-
litanism (2012: 8). While both these critics concentrate on contemporary
British fiction alone, this study assumes a wider perspective, highlighting
unique and emergent formulations of identity and community in American
fiction. Unlike Schoene, the following chapters avoid the suggestion that
the ‘cosmopolitan novel’ is a defined genre and simply identify fictions in
which cosmopolitan sentiments or philosophies are evident. This study will,
however, concur with Schoene’s analysis in favouring a concentration on
contemporary forms of cosmopolitanism that are rooted in the pragmatic
realities of day-to-day existence, rather than the construction of a future
utopian dream. Positioning cosmopolitanism in such a way ensures the
term remains sensitive to the decidedly unequal power-structures governing
cultural relations and the implausible notion of global cosmopolitical
harmony.
In attempting to situate cosmopolitanism outside of merely one literary
framework, such as modernism, this study definitively rejects Walkowitz’s
supposition of a supposed literary cosmopolitan ‘style’, which allegedly
involves a certain ‘attitude, stance, posture, and consciousness’ (2006: 2).
Instead, cosmopolitan ideals and theory are readily identifiable in texts that
could be classified as postcolonial or postmodern or even fantasy literature.
As outlined earlier, cosmopolitanism is identifiable in several academic
disciplines, yet in literary studies it is paradoxically considered as either
the latest movement to capture the post-millennial mood, or merely the
offspring of postmodern and postcolonial thought. Yet Childs and Green
argue that ‘new patterns of human interaction, interconnectedness and
awareness’ affect the ‘form and content’ of contemporary works marking
‘a shift away from the preoccupations of postmodernism and the concerns
raised by postcolonialism’ (2013: 4). These literary fields reveal themselves
to be insufficient in capturing the radical changes shaping global society.7
Literature, like other academic disciplines, must move beyond established
 1 INTRODUCTION 17

paradigms and frameworks to find answers for the post-millennial state.

Accordingly, Rob Wilson calls for an ‘end of millennium [ . . . ] cosmopo-
litanism disgusted with legacies of imperialism and delusions of free-float-
ing irony’ (1998: 359). With this in mind, the positive etymological
construction of cosmopolitanism becomes all the more essential and
beneficial.
Postcolonialism, specifically, is too exclusive and narrow to encompass
the cosmopolitan perspective – we are not merely dealing with the dom-
ination of ethnic groups within a cultural or national context. The emer-
gent forces of globalisation alone induce a ‘complex, overlapping,
disjunctive order that cannot any longer by understood in terms of exist-
ing center-periphery models’ (Appadurai 1996: 32). Globalisation should
certainly not be perceived as a mere continuation or expansion of coloni-
alism, but as an unprecedented change in planetary connections through
cultural interconnectedness and technological change, bringing an inher-
ent restructuring of existing relations and hierarchies. That being said, it
would be a mistake to ignore how contemporary forms of cosmopolitan-
ism involve some imitation of postmodern and postcolonial theory and
often borrow from their critical vocabulary. It is more accurate to position
the concept as a reformulation of late-twentieth century postcolonial and
postmodern schools of thought that explores new modes of interconnec-
tion to face the post-millennial world.

CHAPTER SUMMARIES
To prevent this study simply becoming a sociological review of emergent
cultural processes, the following chapters provide a close reading of
selected fictions which actively engage with, and assume widely diverse
stances to, the concerns of cosmopolitanism (making the structure of this
study a cosmopolitan enterprise in itself). After all, literature is suited to
exploring the values and ideals of cosmopolitan thought. As Nussbaum
argues, ‘[n]arratives, especially novels [ . . . ] speak to the reader as a human
being, not simply as a member of some local culture; and works of literature
frequently cross cultural boundaries far more easily than works of religion
and philosophy’ (1990: 391). The various forms of cosmopolitanism
explored in the chosen novels reveal the multidimensionality of the con-
cept, reactive and sensitive to geographical and cultural idiosyncrasies.
Despite this, the following chapters do not exist in isolation, but interrelate
with one another, fostering a unity in diversity and allowing a clear
18 COSMOPOLITANISM IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FICTION

commonality to run throughout this study. Attention will be paid to the

role of ethical agency in activating global discourses and facilitating cross-
cultural dialogue. Rather than responding to a classical conception of
universalism, the chosen novels demonstrate a sense of urgency in reacting
to the contemporary moment and foreground the interplay between local
and global contexts as the basis for a critical cosmopolitan commentary. As
Boxall emphasises, in the post-millennium local contexts continue to ‘per-
sist stubbornly and violently within the global hegemon’ (2013: 188).
However, Dominic Head identifies that it is this very ‘tension between
the local and the global implied in those opposed perspectives on cosmo-
politanism [that] reveals the potential of the concept in the historical
moment of globalization’ (2009: 147). The majority of the works exam-
ined in the following chapters are twenty-first century novels, with a minor
exception.8 Despite their intrinsic diversity, the fictions are united in their
response to the cultural interconnectedness and globalising processes that
have come to define post-millennial life. Notably, their diverse subject
matter reflects the intrinsic heterogeneity of contemporary British and
American fiction, tackling issues as wide-ranging as deterritorialisation,
racial solidarity, digital migrant labour and posthuman futures.
Robert Eaglestone identifies that ‘the communities of which each of us
feels a part, is central to understanding the contemporary novel’; as a result,
this may require a ‘general rethinking of what “we” means’ (2013: 4, 105).
The chosen fictions not only demonstrate a willingness to engage with
intensified dialogues between local experience and global concerns, but
imagine new modes of belonging and the development of an emergent
planetary consciousness founded on the cross-cultural interdependencies
of the increasingly interconnected world. In order to demonstrate the
multidimensionality of the term, this study examines narrative spatialities
that range from the local to the universal – from the London suburbs of
Zadie Smith to the border-crossings of Kunzru and Mitchell. In so doing,
the disparate fictions cohere in addressing how the contemporary moment
requires a critical cosmopolitanism that operates as ‘an ethos of macro-
interdependencies, with an acute consciousness [ . . . ] of the inescapabilities
and particularities of places, characters, historical trajectories, and fates’
(Rabinow 1986: 258).
Chapter 2 sets the tone for the remainder of this study by interrogating
the planetary fiction of David Mitchell. As the introduction has theorised,
the globalised condition requires an entirely novel form of narrative repre-
sentation, accurately reflecting the experience of individuals existing as
Another random document with
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groups. To these four divisions we, however, add temporarily a fifth,
viz. Pupipara. This is included by Brauer in Schizophora, but it
appears to be really an unnatural complex, and had better be kept
separate till it has been entirely reconsidered. These great sections
may be thus summarised:—

Series 1. Orthorrhapha Nemocera.—Antennae with more than 6

segments, not terminated by an arista; with the segments of the
flagellum more or less similar to one another. Palpi slender and
flexible, four- or five-jointed.[364]

Series 2. Orthorrhapha Brachycera.—Antennae variable, but

never truly Nemocerous nor like those of Cyclorrhapha; when an
arista is present it is usually placed terminally, not superiorly;
when an arista is not present the flagellum terminates as an
appendage consisting of a variable number of indistinctly
separated segments; thus the flagellum is not composed of
similar joints; [rarely are the antennae as many as seven-
jointed]. Palpi only one- or two-jointed.[365] Around the insertion
of the antennae there is no definite arched suture enclosing a
small depressed space. The nervuration of the wings is usually
more complex than in any of the other divisions.

Series 3. Cyclorrhapha Aschiza.—Antennae composed of not

more than three joints and an arista; the latter is not terminal.
Front of head without definite arched suture over the antennae,
but frequently with a minute area of different colour or texture
there. This group consists of the great family Syrphidae, and of
four small families, viz. Conopidae, Pipunculidae, Phoridae, and
Platypezidae. The section is supposed to be justified by its being
Cyclorrhaphous in pupation, and by the members not
possessing a ptilinum (or having no trace of one when quite
mature). The Syrphidae are doubtless a natural group, but the
association with them of the other families mentioned is a mere
temporary device. The greatest difficulty is experienced in
 deciding on a position for Phoridae, as to which scarcely any two
authorities are agreed.

Series 4. Cyclorrhapha Schizophora, or Eumyiid flies. The

antennae consist of three joints and an arista. In the Calyptratae
the frontal suture, or fold over the antennae, is well marked and
extends downwards along each side of the face, leaving a
distinct lunule over the antennae. In the Acalyptrate Muscids the
form of the head and of the antennae vary much and are less
characteristic, but the wings differ from those of Brachycera by
their much less complex nervuration.

Series 5. Pupipara. These are flies of abnormal habits, and only

found in connection with living Vertebrates, of which they suck
the blood (one species, Braula caeca, lives on bees). Many are
wingless, or have wings reduced in size. The young are
produced alive, full grown, but having still to undergo a
metamorphosis. This group consists of a small number of flies of
which some are amongst the most aberrant known. This is
specially the case with the Nycteribiidae. This Section will
probably be greatly modified, as it is far from being a natural
assemblage.[366]

The Sub-Order Aphaniptera, or Fleas, considered a distinct

Order by many entomologists, may for the present be placed as
a part of Diptera.

It must be admitted that these sections are far from satisfactory.

Brauer divides them into Tribes, based on the nature of the larvae,
but these tribes are even more unsatisfactory than the sections,
hosts of species being entirely unknown in the larval state, and many
of those that are known having been very inadequately studied. We
must admit that the classification of Diptera has at present advanced
but little beyond the stage of arranging them in natural families
capable of exact definition. We may, however, draw attention to the
attempt that is being made by Osten Sacken to remodel the
classification of the Nemocera and Brachycera by the combination of
families into super-families.[367] He proposes to divide the Nemocera
into two super-families: 1. Nemocera Vera, including all the families
from Cecidomyiidae to Tipulidae; 2. Nemocera Anomala, consisting
of the small families Bibionidae, Simuliidae, Blepharoceridae,
Rhyphidae and Orphnephilidae.

For Orthorrhapha Brachycera he adopts the following arrangement:

1. Super-family Eremochaeta, for Stratiomyidae, Tabanidae,
Acanthomeridae and Leptidae; 2. Tromoptera, for Nemestrinidae,
Acroceridae, Bombyliidae, Therevidae, and Scenopinidae; 3.
Energopoda, for Asilidae, Dolichopidae, Empidae and
Lonchopteridae, Phoridae being included with doubt; 4. Mydaidae
remains isolated.

This classification is based on the relations of the eyes and bristles

of the upper surface, and on the powers of locomotion, aërial or
terrestrial. At present it is not sufficiently precise to be of use to any
but the very advanced student.

Blood-sucking Diptera.—The habit of blood-sucking from

Vertebrates is, among Insects, of course confined to those with
suctorial mouth, and is exhibited by various Diptera. It is, however,
indulged in by but a small number of species, and these do not
belong to any special division of the Order. It is remarkable that as a
rule the habit is confined to the female sex, and that a large
proportion of the species have aquatic larvae. This subject has many
points of interest, but does not appear to have yet received the
attention it merits. We give below a brief summary of the facts as to
blood-sucking Diptera.

Series I. Nemocera.—In this section the habit occurs in no less than five
families, viz.:
Blepharoceridae. Curupira; in the female only; larva aquatic.
 Culicidae. Culex, Mosquitoes; in the female only; other genera, with one or
two exceptions, do not suck blood; larvae aquatic.
Chironomidae. Ceratopogon, Midge; in the female only; exceptional even
in the genus, though the habit is said to exist in one or two less
known, allied genera; larval habits not certain; often aquatic; in C.
bipunctatus the larva lives under moist bark.
Psychodidae. Phlebotomus: in the female only (?); quite exceptional in the
family; larva aquatic or in liquid filth.
Simuliidae. Simulium, sand-flies; general in the family (?), which, however,
is a very small one; larva aquatic, food probably mixed vegetable and
animal microscopic organisms.
Series II. Brachycera. Tabanidae. Gad-flies: apparently general in the
females of this family; the habits of the exotic forms but little known; in
the larval state, scarcely at all known; some are aquatic.
Series IV. Cyclorrhapha Schizophora: Stomoxys, Haematobia; both sexes
(?); larvae in dung. [The Tse-tse flies, Glossina, are placed in this family,
though their mode of parturition is that of the next section].
Series V. Pupipara. The habit of blood-sucking is probably common to all the
group and to both sexes. The flies, with one exception, frequent
Vertebrates; in many cases living entirely on their bodies, and
apparently imbibing much blood; the larvae are nourished inside the
flies, not on the imbibed blood, but on a milky secretion from the mother.
Sub-Order Aphaniptera. Fleas. The habit of blood-sucking is common to all
the members and to both sexes. The larvae live on dried animal matter.

Fossil Diptera.—A considerable variety of forms have been found in

amber, and many in the tertiary beds; very few members of the
Cyclorrhaphous Sections are, however, among them; the Tipulidae,
on the other hand, are richly represented. In the Mesozoic epoch the
Order is found as early as the Lias, the forms being exclusively
Orthorrhaphous, both Nemocera and Brachycera being represented.
All are referred to existing families. Nothing has been found tending
to connect the Diptera with other Orders. No Palaeozoic Diptera are
known.

Series 1. Orthorrhapha Nemocera

Fam. 1. Cecidomyiidae.—An extensive family of very minute and
fragile flies, the wings of which have very few nervures; the antennae
are rather long, and are furnished with whorls of hair. In the case of
some species the antennae are beautiful objects; in Xylodiplosis
some of the hairs have no free extremities, but form loops (Fig. 220).
In the males of certain species the joints appear to be double, each
one consisting of a neck and a body. Although comparatively little is
known as to the flies themselves, yet these Insects are of importance
on account of their preparatory stages. The larvae have very diverse
habits; the majority live in plants and form galls, or produce
deformations of the leaves, flowers, stems, buds, or roots in a great
variety of ways; others live under bark or in animal matter; some are
predaceous, killing Aphidae or Acari, and even other Cecidomyiids.

Fig. 219—Cecidomyia (Diplosis) buxi. Britain. A, Larva, magnified; B,

pupa; C, imago; D, portion of antenna. (After Laboulbène.)

Fig. 220—One segment of antenna of Xylodiplosis sp.; a, Tip of one

segment; b, base of another. (After Janet.)
The North American Diplosis resinicola lives in the resin exuded as
the results of the attacks of a caterpillar. The larva burrows in the
semi-liquid resin, and, according to Osten Sacken,[368] is probably
amphipneustic. Cecidomyiid larvae are short maggots, narrowed at
the two ends, with a very small head, and between this and the first
thoracic segment (this bears a stigma), a small supplementary
segment; the total number of segments is thirteen, besides the head;
there are eight pairs of stigmata on the posterior part of the body.
Brauer defines the Cecidomyiid larva thus, "peripneustic, with nine
pairs of stigmata, the first on the second segment behind the head;
two to nine on fifth to twelfth segments; body as a whole fourteen-
segmented without a fully-formed head." The most remarkable
peculiarity of Cecidomyiid larvae is that those of many species
possess a peculiar organ—called breast-bone, sternal spatula, or
anchor-process—projecting from the back of the lower face of the
prothoracic segment. The use of so peculiar a structure has been
much discussed. According to Giard,[369] in addition to the part that
protrudes externally, as shown in Fig. 219, A, there is a longer
portion concealed, forming a sort of handle, having muscles attached
to it. Some of these larvae have the power of executing leaps, and
he states that such larvae are provided on the terminal segment with
a pair of corneous papillae; bending itself almost into a circle, the
larva hooks together the breast-bone and the papillae, and when this
connection is broken the spring occurs. This faculty is only
possessed by a few species, and it is probable that in other cases
the spatula is used as a means for changing the position or as a
perforator. Some of the larvae possess false feet on certain of the
segments. Williston says they probably do not moult. In the pupal
instar (Fig. 219, B), the Cecidomyiid greatly resembles a minute
Lepidopterous pupa. The Hessian fly, Cecidomyia destructor, is
frequently extremely injurious to crops of cereals, and in some parts
of the world commits serious depredation. The larva is lodged at the
point where a leaf enwraps the stem; it produces a weakness of the
stem, which consequently bends. This Insect and C. tritici (the larva
of which attacks the flowers of wheat) pupate in a very curious
manner: they form little compact cases like flax-seeds; these have
been supposed to be a form of pupa similar to what occurs in the
Blow-fly; but there are important distinctions. The larva, when about
to undergo its change, exudes a substance from its skin, and this
makes the flax-seed; the larval skin itself does not form part of this
curious kind of cocoon, for it may be found, as well as the pupa, in
the interior of the "flax-seed." Other Cecidomyiids form cocoons of a
more ordinary kind; one species, described by Perris as living on
Pinus maritima, has the very remarkable faculty of surrounding itself,
by some means, with a cocoon of resin. Walsh describes the
cocoon-forming process of certain Cecidomyiids as one of exudation
and inflation; Williston as somewhat of the nature of crystallisation.
Some Cecidomyiids are said to possess, in common with certain
other Diptera, the unusual number of five Malpighian tubes; and
Giard says that in the larva there is only a pair of these tubes, and
that their extremities are united so as to form a single tube, which is
twisted into an elegant double loop.

Thirty years or more ago the Russian naturalist, Wagner, made the
very remarkable discovery that the larva of a Cecidomyiid produces
young; and it has since been found by Meinert and others that this
kind of paedogenesis occurs in several species of the genera
Miastor and Oligarces. The details are briefly as follows:—A female
fly lays a few, very large, eggs, out of each of which comes a larva,
that does not go on to the perfect state, but produces in its interior
young larvae that, after consuming the interior of the body of the
parent larva, escape by making a hole in the skin, and thereafter
subsist externally in a natural manner. This larval reproduction may
be continued for several generations, through autumn, winter, and
spring till the following summer, when a generation of the larvae
goes on to pupation and the mature, sexually perfect fly appears.
Much discussion has taken place as to the mode of origination of the
larvae; Carus and others thought they were produced from the
rudimental, or immature ovaries of the parent larva. Meinert, who
has made a special study of the subject,[370] finds, however, that this
is not the case; in the reproducing larva of the autumn there is no
ovary at all; in the reproducing larvae of the spring-time rudimentary
ovaries or testes, as the case may be, exist; the young are not,
however, produced from these, but from germs in close connection
with the fat-body. In the larvae that go on to metamorphosis the
ovaries continue their natural development. It would thus appear that
the fat-body has, like the leaf of a Begonia, under certain
circumstances, the power, usually limited to the ovaries, of producing
complete and perfect individuals.

Owing to the minute size and excessive fragility of the Gall-midge

flies it is extremely difficult to form a collection of them; and as the
larvae are also very difficult of preservation, nearly every species
must have its life-history worked out as a special study before the
name of the species can be ascertained. Notwithstanding the
arduous nature of the subject it is, however, a favourite one with
entomologists. The number of described and named forms cannot
be very far short of 1000, and each year sees some 20 or 30 species
added to the list. The number of undescribed forms is doubtless very
large. The literature of the subject is extensive and of the most
scattered and fragmentary character.

The Cecidomyiidae have but little relation to other Nemocera, and

are sometimes called Oligoneura, on account of the reduced number
of wing-nervures. Their larvae are of a peculiar type that does not
agree with the larvae of the allied families having well-marked heads
(and therefore called Eucephala), nor with the acephalous maggots
of Eumyiidae.

Fam. 2. Mycetophilidae.—These small flies are much less delicate

creatures than the Cecidomyiidae, and have more nervures in the
wings; they possess ocelli, and frequently have the coxae elongated,
and in some cases the legs adorned with complex arrangements of
spines: their antennae have not whorls of hair. Although very much
neglected there are probably between 700 and 1000 species known;
owing to many of their larvae living in fungoid matter the flies are
called Fungus-gnats. We have more than 100 species in Britain.
Epidapus is remarkable, inasmuch as the female is entirely destitute
of wings and halteres, while the male has the halteres developed but
the wings of very reduced size. E. scabiei is an excessively minute
fly, smaller than a common flea, and its larva is said to be very
injurious to stored potatoes. The larvae of Mycetophilidae are usually
very elongate, worm-like maggots, but have a distinct, small head;
they are peripneustic, having, according to Osten Sacken, nine pairs
of spiracles, one pair prothoracic, the others on the first eight
abdominal segments. They are usually worm-like, and sometimes
seem to consist of twenty segments. Some of them have the faculty
of constructing a true cocoon by some sort of spinning process, and
a few make earthen cases for the purpose of pupation. The pupae
themselves are free, the larval skin having been shed. The
Mycetophilidae are by no means completely fungivorous, for many
live in decaying vegetable, some even in animal, matter.

Fig. 221—Mycetobia pallipes. Britain. A, Larva; B, pupa; C, imago.

(After Dufour.)

The habits of many of the larvae are very peculiar, owing to their
spinning or exuding a mucus, that reminds one of snail-slime; they
are frequently gregarious, and some of them have likewise, as we
shall subsequently mention, migratory habits. Perris has described
the very curious manner in which Sciophila unimaculata forms its
slimy tracks;[371] it stretches its head to one side, fixes the tip of a
drop of the viscous matter from its mouth to the surface of the
substance over which it is to progress, bends its head under itself so
as to affix the matter to the lower face of its own body; then stretches
its head to the other side and repeats the operation, thus forming a
track on which it glides, or perhaps, as the mucus completely
envelops its body, we should rather call it a tunnel through which the
maggot slips along. According to the description of Hudson[372] the
so-called New Zealand Glow-worm is the larva of Boletophila
luminosa; it forms webs in dark ravines, along which it glides, giving
a considerable amount of light from the peculiarly formed terminal
segment of the body. This larva is figured as consisting of about
twenty segments. The pupa is provided with a very long, curiously-
branched dorsal structure: the fly issuing from the pupa is strongly
luminous, though no use can be discovered for the property either in
it or in the larva. The larva of the Australian Ceroplatus mastersi is
also luminous. Another very exceptional larva is that of Epicypta
scatophora; it is of short, thick form, like Cecidomyiid larvae, and has
a very remarkable structure of the dorsal parts of the body; by
means of this its excrement, which is of a peculiar nature, is spread
out and forms a case for enveloping and sheltering the larva.
Ultimately the larval case is converted into a cocoon for pupation.
This larva is so different from that of other Mycetophilidae, that Perris
was at first unable to believe that the fly he reared really came from
this unusually formed larva. The larva of Mycetobia pallipes (Fig.
221) offers a still more remarkable phenomenon, inasmuch as it is
amphipneustic instead of peripneustic (that is to say, it has a pair of
stigmata at the termination of the body and a pair on the first thoracic
segment instead of the lateral series of pairs we have described as
normal in Mycetophilidae). This larva lives in company with the
amphipneustic larva of Rhyphus, a fly of quite another family, and
the Mycetobia larva so closely resembles that of the Rhyphus, that it
is difficult to distinguish the two. This anomalous larva gives rise, like
the exceptional larva of Epicypta, to an ordinary Mycetophilid fly.[373]

But the most remarkable of all the Mycetophilid larvae are those of
certain species of Sciara, that migrate in columns, called by the
Germans, Heerwurm. The larva of Sciara militaris lives under layers
of decomposing leaves in forests, and under certain circumstances,
migrates, sometimes perhaps in search of a fresh supply of food,
though in some cases it is said this cannot be the reason. Millions of
the larvae accumulate and form themselves by the aid of their
viscous mucus into great strings or ribbons, and then glide along like
serpents: these aggregates are said to be sometimes forty to a
hundred feet long, five or six inches wide, and an inch in depth. It is
said that if the two ends of one of these processions be brought into
contact, they become joined, and the monstrous ring may writhe for
many hours before it can again disengage itself and assume a
columnar form. These processional maggots are met with in
Northern Europe and the United States, and there is now an
extensive literature about them.[374] Though they sometimes consist
of almost incredible numbers of individuals, yet it appears that in the
Carpathian mountains the assemblages are usually much smaller,
being from four to twenty inches long. A species of Sciara is the
"Yellow-fever fly" of the Southern United States. It appears that it has
several times appeared in unusual numbers and in unwonted
localities at the same time as the dreaded disease, with which it is
popularly supposed to have some connection.

Fam. 3. Blepharoceridae.[375]—Wings with no discal cell, but with a

secondary set of crease-like lines. The flies composing this small
family are very little known, and appear to be obscure Insects with
somewhat the appearance of Empidae, though with strongly
iridescent wings; they execute aerial dances, after the manner of
midges, and are found in Europe (the Pyrenees, Alps and Harz
mountains) as well as in North and South America. Their larvae are
amongst the most remarkable of Insect forms; indeed, no
entomologist recognises them as belonging to a Hexapod Insect
when he makes a first acquaintance with them. The larva of Curupira
(Fig. 222) lives in rapid streams in Brazil, fixed by its suckers to
stones or rocks. It consists only of six or seven divisions, with
projecting side-lobes; the usual segmentation not being visible.
There are small tracheal gills near the suckers, and peculiar scale-
like organs are placed about the edges of the lobes. Müller considers
that the first lobe is "cephalothorax," corresponding to head, thorax
and first abdominal segment of other larvae, the next four lobes he
considers to correspond each to an abdominal segment, and the
terminal mass to four segments. He also says that certain minute
points existing on the surface, connected with the tracheal system by
minute strings, represent nine pairs of spiracles. These larvae and
their pupae can apparently live only a short time after being taken
out of the highly aërated water in which they exist, but Müller
succeeded in rearing several flies from a number of larvae and
pupae that he collected, and, believing them to be all one species,
he announced that the females exhibited a highly developed
dimorphism, some of them being blood-suckers, others honey-
suckers. It is however, more probable that these specimens
belonged to two or three distinct species or even genera. This point
remains to be cleared up. The larva we have figured is called by
Müller Paltostoma torrentium. It is certain, however, that the Brazilian
Insect does not belong to the genus Paltostoma, and it will no doubt
bear the name used by Osten Sacken, viz. Curupira.

Fig. 222—Under surface of the larva of Curupira (Paltostoma)

torrentium, showing the suckers along the middle of the body,
much magnified. Brazil. (After Fritz Müller.)

The metamorphoses of the European Liponeura brevirostris have

been partially examined by Dewitz, who found the Insects in the
valley of the Ocker in September.[376] He does not consider the
"cephalothorax" to include an abdominal segment; and he found that
two little, horn-like projections from the thorax of the pupa are really
each four-leaved. The pupa is formed within the larval skin, but the
latter is subsequently cast so that the pupa is exposed; its dorsal
region is horny, but the under surface, by which it clings firmly to the
stones of the rapid brook, is white and scarcely chitinised, and
Dewitz considers that the chitinous exudation from this part is used
as a means of fastening the pupa to the stones. Blepharoceridae
possess, in common with Culex, Psychoda and Ptychoptera, the
peculiar number of five Malpighian tubes, and it has been proposed
by Müller to form these Insects into a group called Pentanephria.
Fam. 4. Culicidae (Mosquitoes, Gnats).—Antennae with whorls of
hair or plumes, which may be very dense and long in the male,
though scanty in the female; head with a long, projecting proboscis.
Although there are few Insects more often referred to in general
literature than Mosquitoes, yet the ideas in vogue about them are of
the vaguest character. The following are the chief points to be borne
in mind as to the prevalence of Mosquitoes:—The gently humming
Gnat that settles on us in our apartments, and then bites us, is a
Mosquito; there are a large number of species of Mosquitoes; in
some countries many in one locality; in Britain we have ten or a
dozen; notwithstanding the multiplicity of species, certain Mosquitoes
are very widely diffused; the larvae are all aquatic, and specially
frequent stagnant or quiet pools; they are probably diffused by
means of the water in ships, it being known that Mosquitoes were
introduced for the first time to the Hawaiian Islands by a sailing
vessel about the year 1828. Hence it is impossible to say what
species the Mosquitoes of a given locality may be without a critical
examination. No satisfactory work on the Mosquitoes of the world
exists. Urich states that he is acquainted with at least ten species in
Trinidad. The species common in our apartments in Central and
Southern England is Culex pipiens, Linn., and this species is very
widely distributed, being indeed one of the troublesome Mosquitoes
of East India. The term Mosquito is a Spanish or Portuguese
diminutive of Mosca. It is applied to a variety of small flies of other
families than Culicidae, but should be restricted to these latter. The
irritation occasioned by the bites of Mosquitoes varies according to
several circumstances, viz. the condition of the biter, the condition or
constitution of the bitten, and also the species of Mosquito. Réaumur
and others believed that some irritating fluid is injected by the
Mosquito when it bites. But why should it want to irritate as well as to
bite? Macloskie, considering that the Mosquito is really a feeder on
plant-substances, suggests that the fluid injected may be for the
purpose of preventing coagulation of the plant-juices during the
process of suction. It is a rule that only the female Mosquito bites,
the male being an inoffensive creature, and provided with less
effectual mouth-organs; it has, however, been stated by various
authors that male Mosquitoes do occasionally bite. It is difficult to
understand the blood-sucking propensities of these Insects; we have
already stated that it is only the females that suck blood. There is
reason to suppose that it is an acquired habit; and it would appear
that the food so obtained is not essential to their existence. It has
indeed been asserted that the act is frequently attended with fatal
consequences to the individual that does it. The proper method of
mitigating their nuisance is to examine the stagnant waters in
localities where they occur, and deal with them so as to destroy the
larvae. These little creatures are remarkable from the heads and
thorax being larger and more distinct than in other Dipterous larvae.
Their metamorphoses have been frequently described, and recently
the numerous interesting points connected with their life-histories
have been admirably portrayed by Professor Miall,[377] in an
accessible form, so that it is unnecessary for us to deal with them.
Corethra is placed in Culicidae, but the larva differs totally from that
of Culex; it is predaceous in habits, is very transparent, has only an
imperfect tracheal system, without spiracles, and has two pairs of
air-sacs (perhaps we should rather say pigmented structures
possibly for aerostatic purposes, but not suppliers of oxygen). The
kungu cake mentioned by Livingstone as used on Lake Nyassa is
made from an Insect which occurs in profusion there, and is
compressed into biscuit form. It is believed to be a Corethra. One of
the peculiarities of this family is the prevalence of scales on various
parts of the body, and even on the wings: the scales are essentially
similar to those of Lepidoptera. Though Mosquitoes are generally
obscure plain Insects, there are some—in the South American genus
Megarrhina—that are elegant, beautifully adorned creatures.
Swarms of various species of Culicidae, consisting sometimes of
almost incalculable numbers of individuals, occur in various parts of
the world; one in New Zealand is recorded as having been three-
quarters of a mile long, twenty feet high, and eighteen inches thick.
There is good reason for supposing that Mosquitoes may act as
disseminators of disease, but there is no certain evidence on the
subject. The minute Filaria that occurs in great numbers in some
patients, is found in the human body only in the embryonic and adult
conditions. Manson considers that the intermediate stages are
passed in the bodies of certain Mosquitoes.[378]
Fam. 5. Chironomidae (Gnats, Midges).—Small or minute flies of
slender form, with narrow wings, without projecting rostrum, usually
with densely feathered antennae in the male, and long slender legs.
The flies of this family bear a great general resemblance to the
Culicidae. They are much more numerous in species, and it is not
improbable that we have in this country 200 species of the genus
Chironomus alone. They occur in enormous numbers, and frequently
form dancing swarms in the neighbourhood of the waters they live in.
The species are frequently extremely similar to one another, though
distinguished by good characters; they are numerous about
Cambridge. Many of them have the habit of using the front legs as
feelers rather than as means of support or locomotion. This is the
opposite of what occurs in Culicidae, where many of the species
have a habit of holding up the hind legs as if they were feelers. The
eggs of Chironomus are deposited as strings surrounded by mucus,
and are many of them so transparent that the development of the
embryo can be directly observed with the aid of the microscope.
They are said to possess a pair of air-sacs. The larvae, when born,
are aquatic in habits, and are destitute of tracheal system. They
subsequently differ greatly from the larvae of Culex, inasmuch as the
tracheal system that develops is quite closed, and in some cases
remains rudimentary. There is, however, much diversity in the larvae
and also in the pupae. The little Blood-worms, very common in many
stagnant and dirty waters, and used by anglers as bait, are larvae of
Chironomus. They are said to be αἱ Ἐμπίδες of Aristotle. The red
colour of these larvae is due to haemoglobin, a substance which has
the power of attracting and storing oxygen, and giving it off to the
tissues as they require it. Such larvae are able to live in burrows they
construct amongst the mud. Some of them, provided plentifully with
haemoglobin, are in consequence able to live at great depths, it is
said even at 1000 feet in Lake Superior, and come to the surface
only occasionally. A few are able even to tolerate salt water, and
have been fished up from considerable depths in the sea. It is a
remarkable fact that these physiological capacities differ greatly
within the limits of the one genus, Chironomus, for some of these
species are destitute of haemoglobin, and have to live near the
surface of the water; these have a superior development of the
tracheal system. The pupae of Chironomus have the legs coiled, and
the thorax, instead of being provided with the pair of tubes or
trumpets for breathing that is so common in this division of Diptera,
have a pair of large tufts of hair-like filaments.[379] A very curious
form of parthenogenesis has been described by Grimm[380] as
existing in an undetermined species of Chironomus, inasmuch as the
pupa deposits eggs. Although this form of parthenogenesis is of
much interest, it is not in any way to be compared with the case,
already referred to, of Miastor (p. 461). The "pupa" is at the time of
oviposition practically the imago still covered by the pupal
integument; indeed Grimm informs us that in some cases, after
depositing a small number of ova, the pupa became an imago. This
parthenogenesis only occurs in the spring-generation; in the autumn
the development goes on in the natural manner. The case is scarcely
entitled to be considered as one of paedogenesis.

Gnats of this family, and believed to be a variety of Chironomus

plumosus, are subject to a curious condition, inasmuch as
individuals sometimes become luminous or "phosphorescent"; this
has been noticed more specially in Eastern Europe and Western
Asia. The whole of the body and legs may exhibit the luminous
condition, but not the wings. It has been suggested by Schmidt that
this condition is a disease due to bacteria in the body of the gnat.
[381]

Ceratopogon is a very extensive genus, and is to some extent

anomalous as a member of Chironomidae. The larvae exhibit
considerable variety of form. Some of them are aquatic in habits, but
the great majority are terrestrial, frequenting trees, etc. The former
larvae are very slender, and move after the manner of leeches; they
give rise to imagos with naked wings, while the terrestrial larvae
produce flies with hairy wings. There are also important distinctions
in the pupae of the two kinds; the correlation between the habits, and
the distinctions above referred to, is, however, far from being
absolutely constant.[382] Certain species of midges are in this
country amongst the most annoying of Insects; being of very minute
size, scarcely visible, they settle on the exposed parts of the body in
great numbers, and by sucking blood create an intolerable irritation.
Ceratopogon varius is one of the most persistent of these annoyers
in Scotland, where this form of pest is much worse than it is in
England; in Cambridgeshire, according to Mr. G. H. Verrall, the two
troublesome midges are the females of C. pulicaris and C.
bipunctatus.

Fam. 6. Orphnephilidae.—Small, brown or yellowish flies, bare of

pubescence, with very large eyes contiguous in both sexes, and with
antennae composed of two joints and a terminal bristle; both the
second joint and the bristle are, however, really complex. One of the
smallest and least known of the families of Diptera, and said to be
one of the most difficult to classify. The nervures of the wings are
very distinct. Nothing is known of the habits and metamorphoses;
there is only one genus—Orphnephila; it is widely distributed; we
have one species in Britain.

Fam. 7. Psychodidae (Moth-flies).—Extremely small, helpless flies,

usually with thickish antennae, bearing much hair, with wings
broader than is usual in small flies, and also densely clothed with
hair, giving rise to a pattern more or less vague. These flies are very
fragile creatures, and are probably numerous in species. In Britain
forty or fifty species have been recognised.[383] A South European
form is a blood-sucker, and has received the appropriate name of
Phlebotomus. The life-history of Pericoma canescens has recently
been studied by Professor Miall.[384] The larva is of aquatic habits,
but is amphibious, being capable of existing in the air; it has a pair of
anterior spiracles, by means of which it breathes in the air, and a pair
at the posterior extremity of the body, surrounded by four ciliated
processes, with which it forms a sort of cup for holding air when it is
in the water. The favourite position is amongst the filaments of green
algae on which it feeds. A much more extraordinary form of larva
from South America, doubtless belonging to this family, has recently
been portrayed by Fritz Müller, under the name of Maruina.[385]
These larvae live in rapid waters in company with those of the genus
Curupira, and like the latter are provided with a series of suctorial
ventral discs. Fritz Müller's larvae belong to several species, and
probably to more than one genus, and the respiratory apparatus at
the extremity of the body exhibits considerable diversity among
them.

Fam. 8. Dixidae.—The genus Dixa must, it appears, form a distinct

family allying the Culicid series of families to the Tipulidae. The
species are small, gnat-like Insects, fond of damp places in forests.
We have four British species (D. maculata, D. nebulosa, D.
aestivalis, D. aprilina). The genus is very widely distributed,
occurring even in Australia. The larvae are aquatic, and have been
described by Réaumur, Miall, and Meinert. The pupa has the legs
coiled as in the Culicidae.

Fam. 9. Tipulidae (Daddy-long-legs, or Crane-flies).—Slender

Insects with elongate legs, a system of wing-nervures, rather
complex, especially at the tip; an angulate, or open V-shaped, suture
on the dorsum of the thorax in front of the wings: the female with the
body terminated by a pair of hard, pointed processes, concealing
some other processes, and forming an ovipositor. The curious, silly
Insects called daddy-long-legs are known all over the world, the
family being a very large one, and found everywhere, some of its
members extending their range even to the most inclement climates.
It includes a great variety of forms that would not be recognised by
the uninitiated, but can be readily distinguished by the characters
mentioned above. It is impossible to assign any reason of utility for
the extreme elongation of the legs of these Insects; as everyone
knows, they break off with great ease, and the Insect appears to get
on perfectly well without them. It is frequently the case that they are
much longer in the males than in the females. Other parts of the
body exhibit a peculiar elongation; in some forms of the male the
front of the head may be prolonged into a rostrum. In a few species
the head is separated by a great distance from the thorax, the gap
being filled by elongate, hard, cervical sclerites; indeed it is in these
Insects that the phenomenon, so rare in Insect-structure, of the
elongation of these sclerites and their becoming a part of the actual
external skeleton, reaches its maximum. In several species of
Eriocera the male has the antennae of extraordinary length, four or
five times as long as the body, and, strange to say, this elongation is
accompanied by a reduction in the number of the segments of which
the organ is composed, the number being in the male about six, in
the female ten, in place of the usual fourteen or sixteen. In
Toxorrhina and Elephantomyia the proboscis is as long as the whole
body. In other forms the wings become elongated to an unusual
extent by means of a basal stalk. It is probable that the elongation of
the rostrum may be useful to the Insects. Gosse,[386] indeed,
describes Limnobia intermedia as having a rostrum half as long as
the body, and as hovering like a Syrphid, but this is a habit so foreign
to Tipulidae, that we may be pardoned for suspecting a mistake. The
larvae exhibit a great variety of form, some being terrestrial and
others aquatic, but the terrestrial forms seem all to delight in damp
situations, such as shaded turf or rotten tree-stems. They are either
amphipneustic or metapneustic, that is, with a pair of spiracles
placed at the posterior extremity of the body; the aquatic species
frequently bear appendages or projections near these spiracles. The
pupae in general structure are very like those of Lepidoptera, and
have the legs extended straight along the body; they possess a pair
of respiratory processes on the thorax in the form of horns or tubes.

There are more than 1000 species of these flies known, and many
genera. They form three sub-families, which are by some considered
distinct families, viz.: Ptychopterinae, Limnobiinae or Tipulidae
Brevipalpi, Tipulinae or Tipulidae Longipalpi.

The Ptychopterinae are a small group in which the angulate suture of

the mesonotum is indistinct; the larvae are aquatic and have the
head free, the terminal two segments of the body enormously
prolonged (Fig. 223), forming a long tail bearing, in the North
American Bittacomorpha, two respiratory filaments. Hart[387]
describes this tail as possessing a stigmatal opening at the
extremity; no doubt the structure is a compounded pair of spiracles.
The pupa (Fig. 223, B) has quite lost the respiratory tube at the
posterior extremity of the body, but has instead quite as long a one
at the anterior extremity, due to one tube of the pair normal in
Tipulidae being enormously developed, while its fellow remains
small. This is a most curious departure from the bilateral symmetry
that is so constantly exhibited in Insect-structure. Our British species
of Ptychoptera have the pupal respiratory tube as extraordinary as it
is in Bittacomorpha, though the larval tail is less peculiar.[388] This
group should perhaps be distinguished from the Tipulidae as a
separate family, but taxonomists are not yet unanimous as to this.
Brauer considers that the head of the larva, and the condition of five
Malpighian tubules in the imago, require the association of
Ptychopterinae with the preceding families (Chironomidae, etc.),
rather than with the Tipulidae.

Fig. 223.—Bittacomorpha clavipes. North America x 2⁄1. (After Hart.) A,

Larva; B, pupa: l, the left, r, the right respiratory tube.

The great majority of the Tipulidae are comprised in the sub-family

Limnobiinae—the Tipulidae Brevipalpi of Osten Sacken:[389] in them
the last joint of the palpi is shorter or not much longer than the two
preceding together. They exhibit great variety, and many of them are
types of fragility. The common winter gnats of the genus Trichocera