360 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Oct., '09 



is alighted upon by a female and copulation ensues. "After 

 copulation had begun, the pair would settle down towards the 

 ground, select a quiet spot, and the female would alight by 

 placing her front legs across a horizontal grass blade, her head 

 resting against the blade so as to brace the body in position. 

 Here she would continue to hold the male beneath her for a 

 little time until the process was finished. The male, meanwhile 

 would be rolling the balloon about in a variety of positions, 

 juggling with it, one might almost say. After the male and 

 female parted company, the male immediately dropped the 

 balloon upon the ground." 



Mr. A. L. Melander notes* quite different mating habits in 

 another Empid, namely Hilara trivittata Loew, which lives 

 about brooks. "When copulating the pair float on the surface, 

 and are swiftly carried down stream." Mr. H. S. Barber tells 

 me he has seen a species of this family, probably of the genus 

 Empis, in California which remains on the wing throughout 

 the period of copulation. 



The behavior of the flies observed by the writer presents in- 

 teresting analogies to that noted in the case of Empis acro- 

 batica by Messrs. Aldrich and Turley. In their article as well 

 as that by Mr. Schwarz, it is stated that the Empids suspended 

 themselves by the forelegs, and I noted the same with respect 

 to E. spectabilis, both when feeding singly and when copulat- 

 ing. This species, however, did not brace the head against 

 the support but hung under it, the long front legs passing up 

 on each side of the thorax, the tarsi being curved over 

 the objects clung to. The latter were of various kinds, twigs 

 of young oaks, hickories, sourwood and blades of the 

 common brown-sedge (Andropogon} being utilized. Aldrich 

 and Turley remark that the female was the upper member of 

 the breeding pair and grasped the support. In Empis specta- 

 bilis the position of the sexes is reversed. About four o'clock 

 in the afternoon, in a warm, quiet spot, hundreds of pairs of 

 these flies were seen clinging to the objects above mentioned, 

 the male of each couple grasping the support with the first 



*Trans. Am. E'nt. Soc. 28, 1902, p. 200. 



