ANTHOMYID^S. 



333 



lies, he will seldom be much in doubt as to the proper 

 location of his specimens here. The contiguity of the 

 male eyes, together with the open first posterior cell and 

 large squamae, is always decisive. Not a few of the spe- 

 cies are common about houses, outbuildings, etc., and 

 some of them are among the worst enemies to garden 

 vegetables that the agriculturist has to contend against. 



In the larval stage, the great majority of the species 

 are vegetable feeders, either in living or decaying mate- 

 rial. The larvae of species of Spilogaster, Hydrot&a, Hy- 

 lemyia and Ccenosia have been found in dung or manure; 

 those of Hydrot&a, Ophyra, An thorny ia, Homalomyia, etc., 

 in decaying vegetable material; those of Hylemyia, An- 

 thomyia, Homalomyia, etc., in the nests of various hymen- 

 optera ; those of Mydcsa in Spermophila and Mimus. 

 Larvae of various species of Phorbia are very destructive 

 to growing radishes, onions, cabbage, etc., feeding upon 

 the roots. The larvae are either slender and cylindrical, 

 or flat and oval, with four rows of thread-like processes 

 on the segments. Both types are amphipneustic, and 

 are always provided with two chitinous mouth-hooklets. 

 The puparium is oval in the smooth cylindrical forms, 

 flattened in the others. 



Squama and antisquama, or tegula and antitegula, 

 are the terms proposed by Osten Sacken to indicate 

 respectively the lower and upper scales. 



TABLE OF GENERA. 



REVISED BY PROF. C. F. ADAMS. 



1. Front narrow in the male, not more than one-fifth of the width of 



the head; often holoptic or subholoptic. .... 2 



Front in both sexes wide, including at least one-fourth of the width 



of the head in the male. ....... 27 



2. Squama larger than the antisquama. . 3 

 Squama and antisquama of nearly equal size, neither large. . 17 



