AND ON THE VIVIPAROUS HABIT OF OTHER DIPTERA. 455 



■caves both in Europe and America, while many others have been 



found in the nests of ants. Another, from British East Africa, 



was so like a cockroach that it was sent as such to Mr. P. Shel- 



ford, who formed a new genus (Aenigmatistes) for its reception.* 



I have two preparations of P. ruficornis showing larvae, which 



were given me by that great authority on the British species, 



Dr. J. H. Wood, of Tarrington; they differ much from the 



Muscid type, and the jaws are quite invisible, but the segmented 



body and rather rough skin make them easy to recognise. One 



female contains two, and the other six, larvae. It may be noted 



that the ovipositor differs from the usual type of the part in the 



Phoridae, and has a serrated chitinous process at its end, which 



has a very faint resemblance to the ovipositor of some Phytomy- 



.zidae, and suggests a mining habit ; but the larvae of other 



species of the genus are parasitic on insects or live in decaying 



vegetable matter, dung, and fungi (Agaricus), and one has been 



found parasitic on a snail. t 



Myioba fenestrata is very similar in general habits to Olivier a, 



being very often seen on flowers, especially " compositae." Schiner % 



■quotes Macquart as saying of the larvae, that they, like Millo- 



gramrna, are found side by side with the larvae of some Fossorial 



Hymenoptera, whom they seek out, and that Saint-Fargeau had 



found them on the bodies of beetles (Curculionidae). I found 



the jaws of twenty-eight larvae in my preparation (Fig. 6). 



S. geniculata is a very pretty small fly with a remarkable, long 



proboscis, § with which it is often seen probing the nectaries of 



flowers. It has been bred from the caterpillar of one of the 



Noctuae, on which the larvae are parasitic ; these moths, like 



the fly, are exceedingly plentiful. In my preparation I only 



found two perfect jaws, but I found the earlier stages of about 



eight other larvae ; this suggests a gradual process of bringing 



forth young, one being born at a time. We have some experience 



* Aenigmatistes africanus, R. Shelf ord, M.A., F.L.S., Lin. Soc. Jour. Zool, 

 vol. xxx p 150 March, 1908. 



f Schiner, Die Flier/en, vol. ii. p. 336. 



% Ibid., vol. i. p. 514. 



§ Journ. R. M. Soc. 1909, plate iv. fig. 58. 



