vii PIPUNCULIDAE--CONOPIDAE 497 



eye compared with the size of the body is perhaps greater than 

 in any other Diptera. The general form is somewhat that of 

 Anthrax, hut the venation on the hind part of the wing is much 

 less complex. There is a remarkable difference between the facets 

 on the front and the back of these great eyes. We have three 

 genera and about a dozen species of Pipunculidae in Britain but 

 apparently they are far from common Insects. "What is known 

 about the life-history is almost confined to an imperfect observa- 

 tion by Boheman, who found the larva of P. Justices living after 

 the manner of a Hymenopterous parasite in the body of a small 

 Homopterous Insect. 1 The pupa seems to be of the type of that 

 of Syrphidae. 



Fam. 31. Conopidae. Elegant flies of moderate size, of varied 

 colours, with abdomen slender at the base, at the tip strongly 

 iiii'urrcd and thicker; antennae inserted close together on a 

 in'oiiii ncnce, three -jointed, first joint sometimes very short. TJte 

 ujiper surjace of the body without bristles or iritli but fev:. There 

 is a slender, elongate proboscis, ivhich is retractile and usually 

 in risible. This rather small family of flies includes some of the 

 most remarkable forms of Diptera ; it includes two divisions, 

 the Conopinae with long antennae terminated by a very minute 

 pointed process, and Myopinae with shorter antennae bearing a 

 hair that is not placed at the end of the third joint. The 

 former are the more wasp-like and elegant ; the Myopinae being 

 much more like ordinary flies, though they frequently have 

 curious, inflated heads, with a white face. The mode of life of 

 the larva of Conops is peculiar, it being parasitic in the interior 

 of Bombus, or other Hymenoptera. They have been found to 

 attack Bombus, Chalicodoma, Osmia, Vespa, Pompilus, and other 

 Aculeates. Williston says that Orthoptera are also attacked. 

 Conops has been seen to follow Bumble-bees and alight on them, 

 and Williston says this act is accompanied by oviposition, the 

 larva that is hatched boring its way into the body of the bee. 

 Others have supposed that the flies enter the bees' nests and 

 place their eggs in the larvae or pupae ; but this is uncertain, for 

 Conops has never been reared from a bee-larva or pupa, though 

 it has frequently been procured from the imago : cases indeed 

 having been recorded in which Conops has emerged from the body 



1 Ofv. Ak. Fork. xi. 1854, p. 302, pi. v., siiice confirmed by others, see Giard, 

 C.R. Ac. Sci. cix. 1889, pp. 79 and 708. 



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