40 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Presumably the larvae occur in lesions in advanced cases of ele- 

 phantiasis and the fly is to be sought for among the scavenger 

 forms. The body of the fly is said to be less than that of a louse. 

 Among such small forms of scavenger habits the group that 

 naturally suggests itself is the Phoridse. They are common in 

 the tropics and infest all sorts of organic substances, from dead 

 insects -and- molluscs to human faeces, one species being known 

 even to invade the human cloaca. 1 In a suitable locality, such 

 as some of the West Indian islands where elephantiasis is com- 

 mon, it would be easy, no doubt, to rediscover the fly. 



A CASE OF PHORESY. 



A few years ago Mr. Nathan Banks gave a review of the liter- 

 ature treating of insects being transported by other species. 2 

 Many of the observed cases have been Borboridse transported 

 by dung beetles, the flies evidently employing this method to 

 reach suitable breeding places. The habit appears to be a fixed 

 one in certain species and one species, Limosina sacra, has re- 

 ceived its specific name on account of its association with the 

 sacred beetle, Ateuchus sacer. While the habit has been observed 

 repeatedly in the warmer parts of the Old World, there is but one 

 record for America and in that case the flies w r ere not identified. 3 

 Mr. W. D. Pierce has handed me several specimens of Borboridae 

 which he captured recently (October 15, 1914) at Madison, Florida, 

 while they were riding 011 the dung beetle, Canthon viridis. He 

 tells me there were over twenty of the flies on and hovering 

 about the beetle. The flies proved to belong to two very dis- 

 tinct species, a small one with milk-white wings and a larger 

 one with smoky wings. The former proved to belong to the 

 genus Borborus and is probably an undescribed species; probably 

 it is the same one observed by Moulton in Missouri, for he par- 

 ticularly mentions the white wings of the flies The specimens 

 of the second species taken by Mr. Pierce were unfortunately 

 destroyed by an accident, but probably were also a species of 

 the genus Borborus. 



Under the heading of Notes and Exhibition of Specimens, the 

 following was presented by the author who also exhibited speci- 

 mens and drawings of the flies under consideration: 



< Austen, Trans. Soc. Trop. Med. and Hyg., vol. 3, p. 229-232 (1910). 

 Laurence, Brit. Med. Journ., vol. 2 for 1910, p. 376. 



2 Cases of phoresie. Entom. News, vol. 22, pp. 194-197 (1911). 



3 Moulton, ,). T., Flies riding on tumble-dung. Amer. Ent., vol. 3, 

 p. 226 (1880). 



