THE ATHERICERA. 365 



found in tolerable abundance during the summer, on 

 flowers in meadows and in the neighbourhood of woods. 

 The Beris vallata^ one of the commonest species, has 

 the head and thorax black and the abdomen yellow, 

 so that at first sight it has no small resemblance 

 to some of the little Saw-flies of the genus Athalia. 

 Its scutellum is armed with six spines. The larvse of 

 this and of many other species, both with and without 

 the spines on the scutellum, live in rotten wood or 

 other decaying vegetable matter. Some of them, 

 especially those belonging to the genera Sargus and 

 Chrysomyia, in both of which the scutellum is un- 

 armed, and the antennae are terminated by a long 

 bristle, are remarkable for the metallic brilliancy of 

 their colours; they are rather sluggish flies, which, 

 like the rest of their tribe, frequent flowers in woods 

 and meadows during the summer. 



However gratifying it may be to the reader to turn, 

 as in the present case, from a group the most inter- 

 esting details of whose natural history may be given 

 in a few words, to one the members of which exhibit 

 an almost infinite diversity of habit, — there is no 

 doubt that such a process is productive of anything 

 but pleasurable sensations to the unfortunate author, 

 who finds himself suddenly involved in a crowd of 

 curious and interesting subjects, which he is under 

 the necessity of compressing into the smallest possible 

 space. It is, however, some comfort to me, under 

 these untoward circumstances, that one of the most 

 typical examples of the tribe upon which I have now 

 to enter, may be found in the greatest abundance in 

 all our apartments, so that I may at all events spare 



