THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 363 



NOTES ON THE PREPARATORY STAGES OF PHILOMETRA 



METONALIS, WALK. 



BY HENRY H. LYMAN, MONTREAL. 



In 1907 I spent a week, from Aug. 3rd to 10th, at Prout's Neck, Me., 

 and found the '-'Common Green-head of the Seashore" {Tabanus 

 ?iigrovittatus) very abundant and was several times bitten by the females, 

 the males, as in all of the blood-sucking flies, including the mosquitoes, 

 being harmless. When being driven to the railway station on the 10th in 

 a carriage with a top, they kept swarming around and sometimes alighting 

 on the cover, and having a number of glass-bottomed pill boxes in my 

 pocket three specimens were secured. Later, when about to put the flies 

 into a cyanide bottle, I noticed that in one case the glass bottom was 

 pitted over with eggs of a honey-yellow colour, and as these had not been 

 previously noticed I supposed that they had been laid by the fly. Not 

 being especially interested in the Diptera and not expecting to be able to 

 rear the larvae I neglected to make any microscopical examination and 

 description of the eggs. 



When the eggs hatched, instead of being Dipterous maggots, they 

 appeared to be little caterpillars, and a suspicion arose as to whether the 

 eggs might have been laid by some moth that had been boxed and not 

 been noticed till after the fly had been captured. Not having the least 

 idea what the larva fed on, they were put in a tin-topped jelly jar with an 

 assortment of "generally favourite food-plants" such as dandelion, plantain, 

 wild cherry, etc., but as the chance of succeeding with them seemed 

 extremely slender little atttention was paid to them, and when the contents 

 of the jar were turned out to see if the larvae were still alive, it was found 

 that they had eaten sparingly of the dandelion leaves and were resting 

 upon them, although they had turned brown, wet and rotten. 



Feeling compunction for neglect and fearing that they would suffer 

 from so miserable a diet the jar was cleansed and a supply of fresh green 

 leaves was put in and the larvae carefully transferred to them by a camel's- 

 hair pencil. Strange though it seemed, they did not appear to relish fresh 

 leaves, but when they became moist and rotten the larvae where nearly 

 always found upon them. The amount eaten was small and growth was 

 slow, but they were plump and about the same colour as the rotten 

 dandelion leaves. There were not many to begin with and one by one 

 they died off, till by hibernating time only two remained. Despairing of 

 carrying them safely through the winter they were sent to the late Dr. 



October, 1909 



