ON SOME NEW AND RARE BRITISH DIPTERA 23 



Verrall, our greatest authority on the subject, and he very 

 kindly examined it, and reported as follows : " I have been 

 closely examining your Didca, and think it must be the 

 same as a female belonging to Mr. R. C. Bradley and as a 

 female caught by myself at Lairg. I consider these the 

 same as the comparatively common New Forest species 

 = D. intermedia'' 



This specimen was taken at Ferness, Dunphail, and so 

 far as I know is the only specimen taken in Scotland 

 besides the one mentioned by Mr. Verrall in the letter 

 quoted above. The only other British record I can find is 

 in a paper by the Rev. E. N. Bloomfield on " Rare British 

 Diptera in the British Museum" (" Ent. Mo. Mag.," 1895, 

 p. 113), where he mentions the New Forest as a locality. 



CYNOMYIA ALPINA, Ztt. In Yen-all's " List of British 

 Diptera" the name of this species is printed in italics, as 

 requiring confirmation for its being a British insect Among 

 a small collection of flies from Barr, South Ayrshire, col- 

 lected and sent to me by Mr. Anderson Fergusson, is an 

 undoubted male of this species. In general appearance it 

 has a wonderful resemblance to a common Bluebottle (Calli- 

 phora), but there are several important differences. As 

 Zetterstedt points out, it is smaller, with a narrower body, 

 the seta of the antennae is not plumose to the tip, the alulets 

 are white, not fuscous, while the apex of the abdomen is 

 clubbed in the male and more acute in the female. The 

 abdomen, moreover, is of a more greenish tinge and much 

 more polished than in either Calliphora erytlirocephala or 

 vomitoria, while the bristles on the apical segments are 

 much stronger and more regularly disposed. In spite of 

 these distinctions, however, the species have a remarkably 

 close general resemblance, and no doubt this interesting 

 species of Cynomyia has been often overlooked. 



The only British record I can find is one in the 

 " Scottish Naturalist," N.S., vol. i. p. 18 (1883-84), where 

 Old Aberdeen is given as a locality by W. Armston Vice. 

 Mr. Verrall has evidently considered the identification 

 doubtful, and I am glad to be now able to confirm the 

 occurrence of the species in Scotland. 



