xxxiii, '22] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 283 



upon dried specimens. The only color notes from fresh material are 

 those given by Hebard for specimens from fir, these being described as 

 green. My material shows that the species presents a marked color 

 dimorphism. Of the twenty specimens, eighteen were entirely green 

 except that the antennae were dusky in both sexes while in the males 

 the tarsi, tibiae and apical half of the femora were pinkish brown or 

 pink. Two specimens, one of each sex, had the entire dorsum pink, 

 the venter green, and the tarsi, tibiae and apical half of the femora pink. 



The measurements given by Hebard appear also to have been made 

 from dried specimens, the greatest length given being 19.8 mm. for the 

 female and 14.5 for the male. My specimens, which were killed in 

 Carnoy fluid, ranged from 22-24 mm. for the female and 15-18 mm. for 

 the males. 



With a knowledge of the host plant it is hoped that further notes as 

 to the life history may be obtainable. G. F. FERRIS, Stanford Univer- 

 sity, California. 



Insect Photography. 



At the meeting of the Entomological Society of Belgium, Brussels, 

 March 4. 1922, M. Bastin, of Antwerp, showed a photostereosynthesis 

 (Lumierc system) of a Dipter which, viewed as a transparency, gave 

 the impression of astonishing reality. It had been obtained by the exact 

 superposition of six photographs on glass, taken at the same magnifica- 

 tion with the aid of a microscopic objective, at regularly increasing 

 depths of the preparation. (Bull. Soc. Ent. Belg. iv, p. 41). 



Chrysops costata Sucking Human Blood in Cuba (Dip.: Tabanidae). 



Under the title Sobrc la mosca Chrysops costata Fabr. quc clntpa la 

 sangre del hombrc, obserToda en Cuba, Dr. W. H. Hoffman has a note 

 in Sanidad y Bcncficcncia (Boletin Oficial, Edicion Mensual, XXVI, No. 

 3, p. 121, Habana, Setiembre, 1921) describing his persanal experiences 

 in being bitten on the head about twelve times by flies which Dr. Walter 

 Horn, of Berlin-Dahlem, identified as Chrysops costata Fabr. The flies 

 bit the observer at various hours, both by day and by night, from 

 October to February, in the grounds of Las Animas Hospital at Havana. 

 Generally the flies had a little blood in the stomach and they made no 

 attempt to escape from his hands. The bite was followed by consid- 

 erable inflammation and pain. As other residents of the locality have 

 not been bitten by this fly the observer suggests that his keeping his 

 hair short, which is not the. prevailing custom, exposes him to thi si- 

 attacks. He has not found this species elsewhere than on his own 

 person. The transmission of Filaria by C. dhuiduita in West Africa 

 and of Bacterium tularensc by C. discalis in Utah suggests to him t Im- 

 possibility that this Cuban species may also serve as a vector of disease. 



