4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.78 



hatch after the ants had placed their booty in their hive as food for their 

 young. If this supposition be correct, the Stylogaster would offer a case of 

 parasitism of quite a novel kind. 



Sumichrast," says: "I have observed, sometimes, that little flies, 

 of the family Syrphides, follow, flying above them, the column of 

 Eciton, but can not give any account of the evolutions of these Dip- 

 tera." This observation was made at Potrero, near Cordoba, 

 Mexico. 



Williston ^ says : " Stylogaster, it is thought, may be parasitic upon 

 Termites." 



ToAvnsend ^ gives the following interesting account of his capture 

 of Stylogaster stylosa, ethiopa, and minuta, in 1896, near San 

 Rafael, Vera Cruz, Mexico : 



Fifty-one specimens of this interesting genus were taken, hovering over the 

 front ranks of a moving army of ants, in a " cafetal " at Paso de Telaya during 

 the last hour or two of daylight on March 29. In company with them were 

 numerous specimens of Hyalomyia and some other small tachiuids. The ants 

 have been determined by Mr Theo. Pergaude as Eciton foreli Mayr. Mr. 

 Pergande adds that they are the most northerly forms of that species, which is 

 a widely distributed one in the American Tropics. The column of ants was 

 about 15 feet wide and 25 feet long, and moved slowly but surely in a straight 

 line through the "cafetal," swarming rapidly over the thick covering of dead 

 leaves, branches, and other obstructions that strewed the ground under the 

 coffee trees. The specimens of 8t)/logaster hovered continually over the ants, 

 now and again darting at them, without doubt for the purpose of ovipositing in 

 their bodies. During the whole three months of my collecting in this locality 

 I saw not a single specimen of Stylogaster at any other time; but on this 

 occasion, during the short time that I had before dark overtook me, I succeeded 

 in capturing 51 specimens by sweeping closely with the net over the front ranks 

 of the ants. 



De Meijere* says, " Stylogaster verfolgt Termiten," and repeats the 

 same in volume 55 (1912, p. 206), where he cites in confirmation 

 "Bates, 1863 (vol. 1, p. 151)"; but I can find no such reference in 

 Bates, nor in the extensive quotations from him in Hagen's mono- 

 graph of the Termites.^ 



Dr. William Mann, Director of the National Zoological Park, gives 

 me the following note regarding the species he captured in Lom- 

 bardia, Honduras, in 1924 {ethiopa, pectinata, apicalis, and minuta) : 



The Stylogasters that I collected in Honduras were hovering over the front 

 end of a column of Eciton praedator. At the front of such column, the ants 

 spread out, and it seems that this is a good time for the fly to oviposit. Further 

 along in the column the workers are much more cjosely massed, and it is very 

 dangerous then for any insect to attack one. 



1 Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, vol. 2, 18G8, p. 41. 



2 Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. 6, 1885, p. 389. 



3 Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 6, vol. 19, 1897, p. 23. 

 * Tijdsch. V. Ent., vol. 46. 1903, p. 151. 



B Linnaea Ent., vol. 12, 1858, pp. 270-287. 



