160 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



ward a shortening of the facial plate. Both forms are densely 

 hairy and Bovibus-\\k.z. These forms should throw much light 

 on oestrid, megaprosopid, and sarcophagid relationships when 

 they are more fully investigated. 



Pantel quotes Kiinckel's observation of a female Sarcophaga 

 depositing a maggot in the anus of the Morocco locust, and 

 comments on the recent experiments of Lahille with Sarco- 

 phaga on crickets. I think there is no doubt that sarcophagid 

 maggots do at times enter sound hosts either by body open- 

 ings or through less chitinized parts, but in any event, though 

 to all practical purposes true parasites, they live rather as 

 scavengers in the host, as pointed out by Pautel. They have 

 formed no habit of procuring air-supply through the skin or 

 tracheae of the host, as have the truly specialized parasites. 



Group IV. Species which deposit naked maggots or mag- 

 gots in choria in the path of the host. This comprises the 

 forms which larviposit upon plant surfaces in proximity to the 

 host. It is a large and natural group of subfamily rank, 

 easily dividing into at least nine group-units of tribal rank on 

 maggot and adult characters. All possess a long, coiled, 

 strap-like uterus in which develop colored maggots whose dor- 

 sum and sides are covered with minute subchitinous plates. 



Pantel mentions that Reaumur described the uterus of 

 Rchinomyia in 1738, but does not state that he also gave an 

 extremely recognizable figure of it. I believe that the species 

 was Echinomyia grossa, which is a most prolific form and has 

 an immense uterus 60 mm. long. I consider Reaumur's esti- 

 mate of 20,000 maggots in one uterus, however, as rather too 

 high. My own numerous dissections in this group have 

 shown this species and the North American Archvtas h\stri- 

 coides to be the most prolific, but in no case have I been able 

 to estimate a uterine content of more than 8,000 to 10,000 

 eggs and maggots, and this is much above the average. Yet 

 this may exceptionally be exceeded by large flies which have 

 not found suitable conditions for larviposition. 



One century after Reaumur's work, in 1838, von Siebold 

 enlarged upon this type of uterus, publishing a most important 

 paper upon these forms. These two authors and their publi- 

 cations, with Sasaki's work on the leaf-ovipositing Crosso- 

 cosmia in 1887, and Portchinski's work in 1885 on copro- 

 phagous and necrophagous forms, mark prominent epochs in 

 our knowledge of muscoid reproduction and early stages. 

 Since 1907, greatly renewed interest in this subject has sprung 

 up, as shown by the published work of Hewitt on Afttsca, 

 that of Pantel, Neilson, and myself on the general subject, 

 and that of Austen, Roubaud, and others on Glossnin. 



