The Microscope and Biology. By W. Wescke*. 417 



Ophyra leucostoma W. $ shows dark reddish lobular masses, 

 some of which seem to be made up of the same material as that 

 in the intestine of H. meteorica. 



Drymia hamata Fin., as I would expect from the character of 

 the mouth, shows pollen. In these flies the paraglossia of the 

 labium have been elongated, and the tracheae simplified, but not 

 so much modified as in Siphona. 



Hylemia strigosa F. $ is quite full of spores of fungus. 



Lasiops ctenoctema Kow. $ has the abdomen full of a dark 

 mass, with black angular fragments similar to that in H. dentipes 2 

 and others. 



The two sexes of Anthomyia pluvialis L. show pollen and the 

 black stain. 



The food in A. radicum is very quickly digested, as, out of 

 twenty preparations, in only two was the food present in any 

 quantity ; the black granular stain was very constant, and in the 

 abdomens of four I found black angular debris, and one single 

 spore. 



Homalomyia scalaris $ shows masses of minute pollen. 



H. canicularis L. $ shows a fine yellowish granule. This 

 insect was caught inside a house in Maida Vale, and the contents 

 of his stomach are not without traces of albumen. 



H. incisatura Ztt. £ . — Many black fragments, and digested 

 food in nodules. 



Caricea tigrina F. $ shows digested food which seems albu- 

 minous, but also a number of rather large pollen-granules. Two 

 males from the borders of the New Forest have no pollen, and 

 what little food is present is of the appearance seen in E. livida. 



Hoplogaster mollicula Fin., a male from Jersey, shows an intes- 

 tine, or rather stomach, as it is swollen into a large bulb, full of 

 transparent, long filaments, of a low vegetable nature (mycelium 

 of a fungus ?). A female from the same place has well-digested food 

 of a dark colour, and a few separate filaments, which appear to be 

 a series of minute cells, and probably are spores of a fungus. A 

 second female has obviously been feeding on the same food as the 

 male. A male from the New Forest is, unfortunately, quite 

 empty. Another female shows some hairs, which suggests that 

 this species is occasionally predaceous. 



A Csenosid from Kineton, Victoria, shows pollen-granules and 

 some semi-lunate bodies that are strange to me. 



Another, from Geelong, Victoria, shows a scattered mass of 

 debris, with some small crystals and one or two diatoms. 



CORDILURID^E. — Scatophaga stercoraria L. var. Merdaria F. $ , 

 and all the Scatophagidse, show digested food much like in appear- 

 ance to that found in Empis livida ; this particular male has also 

 a minute cluster of reniform, shining cells, and a spore of fungus 

 or mildew. 



Aug. 19th, 1908 2 F 



