F. R. COLE 11 



just crawling out of a tree." Two specimens of Holops cyaneus 

 were found in the summer of 1859 on the window of his house in 

 San Juan. They flew heavily and allowed themselves to be caught 

 easily. Philippi says of Panops nigritarsis: "This magnificent 

 fly is not rare in the province of Valdivia; they fly uncommonly 

 fast, as do the others of their genus, and buzz as strong as a 

 bumble bee; by preference they sink their long proboscis in the 

 flowers of Alstromoeria aurantiaca, and they are then easy to 

 seize, when they are busy with sucking." He speaks of finding 

 Panops aeneus almost every year near Santiago at the foot of 

 Cerro San Cristoval, in the month of November, and feeding on 

 the flowers of Silybum marianum. 



Most of the species of the family are considered rare, but Osten 

 Sacken states that they are numerous in parts of Australia. 

 Schiner speaks of finding Acrocera globulus in swarms at Trieste 

 in 1862, when they alighted on the visor of his cap and swarmed 

 like Anthomyiids. In 1851, Walker in speaking of the habits 

 says: "The Acrocerae are very sluggish, and are often seated in 

 groups on the withered trunks and branches of oaks and other 

 trees, about which they fly when the sun shines in warm weather, 

 they also frequent thickets and herbage beneath trees." 



The observations of Gerstaecker on some European species are 

 interesting. He and Stein found great numbers of Cyrtidae in 

 the Brieslanger forest, the adults being collected in a meadow 

 with scattered willows and blackthorn bushes, most of them on 

 the dry leafless branches of Equisetum limosum. As many as 

 fifteen or twenty were observed on a single blackthorn bush in 

 the hot sun, and they could usually be picked up in the fingers, 

 only flying a short distance in any case. A trip was made later 

 in the season and only a few living females were found' in the 

 spider's webs; Gerstaecker not knowing their habits did not think 

 of their being parasitic on the spiders. A few dead ones, appar- 

 ently in good shape, were found. This is an interesting observa- 

 tion, and the writer has found Opsebius diligens in a spider's web 

 untouched, with two large spiders in the web. Gerstaecker 

 remarked that the males of Ogcodes zonatus flew oftener and were 

 more lively than the females. Great numbers of the males played 

 about on the plum bushes, the females never joining in the play. 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, XLV. 



