I90I. 221 



THE PUPARIUM OF THE GROUSE-FLY. 



ORNITHOMYIA AVICUI,ARIA. 

 BY GEORGE H. CARPENTER, B.SC, F.E-S. 



It is nearly 160 years since De Reaumur in his fascinating 

 Memoir/ "Sur la maniere extremement singuliere dont nais- 

 sent quelques especes de Mouches a deux Aisles apellees 

 Mouches Araignees," made known the remarkable mode of 

 reproduction that characterises the " pupiparous " Diptera. 

 He dwells at first on the marvel that would be aroused if 

 " une espece de quadrupedes dont la femelle d'une taille egale 

 a celle d'un bceuf ou d'un chameau, met au jour un animal 

 aussi grand qu'elle-meme," It would be judged incredible, he 

 writes, " qu'ily a une espece de poules, par exemple, qui pond 

 des oeufs d'oii sort une poule ou un coq, qui dans le moment 

 meme ou il paroit au jour ne cede .aucunement en grandeur a 

 la mere." He considers that the marvel would be neither 

 increased nor diminished on account of the small size of any 

 animal exhibiting such a mode of reproducing its kind, and 

 announces that "Thistoire des insectes avoit un tel prodige a 

 nous montrer." 



To modern entomologists, familiar enough with the repro- 

 duction of the Pupipara, it is refreshing as well as instructive 

 to see how the facts appealed to the first investigator of these 

 insects. And our admiration for De Reaumur's philosophic 

 grasp of his subject increases as we notice that, although 

 throughout his Memoir he uses the term "oeuf" for the 

 extruded puparium, he arrives at the conclusion that a com- 

 plete transformation must be carried on within the body of 

 the mother-fly. In this respect he, far more than Dufour, his 

 successor in the study of these insects, anticipated the know, 

 ledge of to-day, for Dufour 2 emphatically denied the existence 

 of a larval stage in Melophagics. 



Since the works of De Reaumur, and Dufour, it is strange 

 how little has been written on the puparia of these insects. 



1 De Reaumur. Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire des Insectes. 

 Tome VI., Memoire XIV. Paris, 1742. 



3 Iv. Dufour. Etudes anatomiques et Physiologiques sur les Insectes 

 Dipteres de la Famille des Pupipares. Ann. Sci. Nat. (Zoo/.) (3) iii., 1845 



pp. 49-95, pis- 2 -3- 



A 3 



