1 62 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [April, '12 



"The food was called at that time and place by the Pitt 

 Rivers 'Why-hauts.' When the Indians had gotten as much 

 of the Why-hauts as they needed for winter supply, they car- 

 ried it away to their places of living. A great deal of this 

 was used as winter food." 



The two places described by the Indians are both on Pitt 

 River in the southern part of Modoc County, the northeastern 

 county of California, and are not much more than ten miles 

 apart by the data given. The two Indians it will be noticed 

 belonged to different tribes, which probably accounts for slight 

 differences in handling the flies. I believe both accounts are 

 truthful, although the quantity of material secured may be 

 a little exaggerated. 



The identification of the fly as a member of the genus 

 Athcrix is very easy. About the year 1900 I was at Logan, 

 Utah, early in July, and joined a fishing party which drove to 

 a point southeast of Avon, in the south end of Cache Valley, 

 on a small stream in the mountains. I distinctly remember 

 seeing masses of flies of the genus Atheri.v come floating down 

 the stream, and in one spot where a stick lay partly under 

 water they would lodge so that a handful could easily be picked 

 up. At the time I had no place to put the insects for preser- 

 vation, and did not collect any, but I recognized the genus. 

 In the summer of 1898 also, at Hailey, Idaho, or a few miles 

 above the town, I noticed on the underside of a wagon bridge 

 crossing Wood River masses of old dead flies that had appar- 

 ently been attached to the timbers of the bridge for several 

 years ; they were hanging over the water. Material which I 

 collected here was afterwards destroyed by a fire in the Uni- 

 versity of Idaho, and again I am not sure of the species, but 

 I collected Atheri.v variegata at Hailey on another occasion. 

 It would be necessary to collect in the Pitt River region to 

 feel certain of the species of the above account by the Indians. 

 The explanation of the gregarious habit of the fly is that 

 the females deposit their eggs collectively in this manner. The 

 female does not fly away from the egg mass, and other females 

 gathering on the outside of the cluster and also depositing 

 their eggs results in the formation of a mass of eggs and 



