704 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Fletcher exhibited specimens of a fly (f&m.Phytomyzidae) the 

 larvae of which in great numbers have infested several composites 

 — cinerarias, thistles, but more particularly the marguerites and 

 summer chrysanthemums — in Sir William Macleay's garden 

 adjoining, during the last two months ; so numerous have they 

 been that many of the plants have been quite spoilt for horticul- 

 tural purposes. Also, for the Hon. W. R. Campbell, M.L.C., 

 specimens of crickets (Gryllus servillei, Sauss.) which, in the 

 Macintyre River District during March and April last before the 

 frosts set in, appeared in myriads, doing considerable damage to 

 the sweet potato and lucerne crops, and injuring even blankets. 



Mr. Froggatt exhibited and read a short note on the life- 

 history of a dipterous insect belonging to the genus Syrphus. 

 The specimens exhibited were bred from some pale green larvae, 

 found upon Eucalyptus leaves which were covered with the larvae 

 of Psyllidce. While keeping the Psylla in a damp box, some 

 very minute grubs were noticed to be crawling about among the 

 cells ; these grubs rapidly increased in size, feeding on the sweet 

 sugary matter into which the moisture of the box caused the lerp 

 to melt, but not eating the helpless little larvae whose homes they 

 destroyed. On the seventh day they were found to have trans- 

 formed into top-shaped pupae, lying at the bottom of the box ; 

 after removal to a glass-topped box, the perfect flies emerged on the 

 fifth day. Kirby says that the larvae of Syri^hus in England live 

 on the aphis. 



Also specimens of a small leaf-boring fly (Phytomyza sp.) of the 

 same species as that exhibited by Mr. Fletcher, but bred from the 

 leaves of the sunflower. And some rare galls received from Mr. 

 French, F.L.S., recently named by Maskell "The horn scale" 

 (Frenchia casuarince). These remarkable homopterous galls 

 come from the Wimmera, Victoria, and are found on Casuarina 

 suberosa. 



