On some new and incompletely 



known species of the family Diopsidae 



from British East Africa. 



F. 0. EGGERS. 



(From the Zootomical Laboratory of the Imperial University of Petrograd). 



Owing to the kindness of Prof. V. A. D o g i e 1 I received 

 for scientific researcli a small collection of D i o p s i d a e, or 

 „liorned flies", which were taken by him and I. I. Sokolov 

 during their expedition to British East Africa in the summer 

 of 1914. 



With respect to Diopsidae, until the present the Sunde 

 islands were more fully investigated in the works of Aleijere 

 and van der Wulp. In Africa, in many places, especially 

 in its central and eastern parts, Diopsidae had not been 

 taken at all. British East Africa remains entirely unexplored 

 as far as concerns this group. 



The present material was taken from two places: firstly, 

 in the Mabira forest, about 50 kilometres north of Victoria 

 Nyanza. This is a damp forest, and the flies are to be found 

 on plants, lining the foot-paths. They were caught here in 

 the middle of June. The second place, where they were to 

 be found, were the banks of the river Lumi, near lake Chala, 

 to the east of Kilima-Njaro, where captures were made in 

 the beginning of August i. e. in the dry season. That is the 

 reason why the flies were found near the very water exclu- 

 sively, sitting on the surface of stones and leaves, sometimes 

 scores at a time. The following table gives a list of the 

 species investigated together with the places of capture and 

 number of specimens. 



1. Diopsis icUneumonea L. Mabira 1 c^ 



2. „ finitima n. sp. „ 1 c? 



