186 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



habitual blood-suckers and must have blood for the perpetua- 

 tion of the species, others that are indifferent blood-suckers, 

 and still others that do not attack warm-blooded animals at 

 all. And this condition repeats itself in a number of genera, 

 so that it is clear that the habit can not serve as a guide to 

 the exact systematic position of the species. In the case of 

 the Leptidse the habit perhaps appears so remarkable because 

 we know so little of the habits of the group. Mr. Knab stated 

 that he had been unable to find anything beyond the general 

 statement that these flies are predaceous. He asked Mr. 

 Malloch if he knew of any exact records by European entomo- 

 logists. 



Mr. Malloch said that he only knew that the Leptidas are 

 generally considered predaceous. The fact that Leptis rested 

 upon tree trunks always with its head downward suggests 

 that it watches for prey; its very sudden flight also suggests 

 the predaceous habit. 



Mr. Schwarz said : As to Symphoromyia, he had observed 

 it on the wing, evidently hunting for prey among the bushes, 

 although he had never actually taken one with prey. Too 

 much reliance should not be placed on the structure of the 

 proboscis. Mr. Green, of Ceylon, had sent a muscid fly, 

 Ochromyia jejuna Fab., to Professor Poulton with the state- 

 ment that it had been found preying upon termites. This 

 observation had been questioned on the ground that the mouth- 

 parts of Ochromyia are unfit for piercing another insect. 

 Although the flies were seen capturing the termites, Colonel 

 Yerbury expressed his belief that the only possibility was that 

 the termites had been injured in some way. 



Mr. Malloch stated that he had observed the female of an 

 anthomyid fly, Spilog aster nigrinervis Zett., which was feed- 

 ing upon another fly, Hilara litorea Fall. ; also a female and 

 predaceous. In spite of the apparently inadequate structure 

 of its proboscis the Spilogaster devoured the abdomen and 

 all the softer parts of its victim, leaving only a small bundle 

 of the chitinous parts. He had also seen Spilog aster preying 

 upon small neuropteroid insects and upon Homoptera. 



Mr. Knab exhibited a number of species of the genus 

 Atherix and expressed the opinion that they are not all con- 



