146 Knapweed Gallflif 



it has been recorded from Ballyvaiighan, Co. Clare ; Westport, Louis- 

 burgh and Clare Island, Co. Mayo. Professor Carpenter further remarks 

 that probably the species is widely spread in Ireland. 



It is worthy of note that specimens belonging to the genus Urophora 

 have been recorded only from the old world. In the Katalog der Paldark- 

 tischen Dipteren (1905) twenty-nine species of this genus are recorded 

 from Europe and Northern Africa ; seven of these are listed as British 

 (Verrall) and one species, U. spoliata Hal., has not been found elsewhere. 



Historical. 



Records of detailed observations on the life-history of this species 

 appear to be very scanty, although a few well-known entomologists 

 have studied closely allied forms. Thus Goureau (1845) described the 

 larva and pupa of U. cnspidata Meig., and Dufour (1857) those of 

 U . quadrifasciata Meig. Until comparatively recently the former was 

 regarded as synonymous with U. solstitialis (Schiner, H. Loew) ; 

 Becker (1902) however, who examined Meigen's type of U. cnspidata 

 in the Paris Museum, considers that U . cuspidata Meig. is distinct from 

 U. solstitialis L. The most complete account of the larva and pupa 

 of a species of the genus Urophora was given by Mik (1897) who described 

 those of U. cardi(i L. ; the larvae of this species induce galls on the 

 stems of Cirsium arvense L. 



Boie (1848) obtained U. solstitialis in hundreds from galled flower- 

 heads of Cardwis crispus L. ; they emerged from June 8 to July 12. 

 From several thousand pupae only three or four flies emerged in autumn, 

 and his opinion was that this species gave rise to a single brood only, 

 unless exceptional conditions prevailed. 



In a paper devoted to the natural history of the Trypetidae, Frauen- 

 feld (1857) refers to this species among others ; he states further, that 

 it produces swellings in the receptacles of all the plants that it infects, 

 and he gives a list of its food-plants. 



There is a brief paragraph by Kaltenbach (1874) on this species, 

 he gives the names of three hymenopterous parasites reared by Goureau 

 from U. cuspidata, as parasites of U. solstitialis. He assumed, however, 

 that the two latter were one and the same species. 



Fitch (1872, 1879) refers to it in two short notes ; it is also referred 

 to by Connold (1901) and by Swanton (1912). Connold gives a short 

 description of the galls together with photographs of these and of the 

 larva and pupa. 



