HIBERNATION OF FLIES IN A FIFESHIRE HOUSE 139 



THE HIBERNATION OF FLIES IN A 

 FIFESHIRE HOUSE. 



By Major T. K. Gaskell. 



Having read Dr Ashworth's paper in the April number of 

 the Scottish Naturalist, I think perhaps the following few 

 notes on flies may be of interest. In February last year 

 I was staying at Lahill, Largo, and on several occasions 

 noticed small flies coming out from a small crack behind the 

 mantelpiece in my bedroom (which faces west), no doubt 

 attracted by the heat of the fire. They crawled about on the 

 mantelpiece and windows, in a sleepy and sluggish fashion ; 

 altogether I killed about ninety of them. This year in 

 March I was staying in the same room, and large numbers 

 of what seems to be the same kind of fly appeared. They 

 behaved in the same way, and were found in small numbers 

 congregated behind the shutters. There were a few large 

 flies among them. 



I killed about six hundred of the small flies, and Mr 

 Grimshaw has kindly identified them as Limnophora 

 septcmnotata (thirty-one specimens, all females). There were 

 small numbers in other rooms, but in no room were there 

 so many. 



Some of the other specimens collected in a south room in 

 the same house were identified by Mr Grimshaw as follow: — 

 I $ and I ? PoUenia rudis, six specimens of Aphiochcsta 

 rufipes, 14 c? and 8 ? Pyrellia eriopJithalma, i ? Muscina 

 stabulans, 2 ? Phaonia signata, 2 Leria serrata, 10 Simulium^ 

 sp. Also several Chalcids, which are dealt with by Mr 

 Waterston in the article which follows. 



