164 Phoridae. 



the segments; the Hypocera-\d,vvQ. lives parasitically in the bee-larva 

 and goes for pupation out of it, bores through the covering of the 

 cell and falls to the ground where it pupates; the bee-larvæ perishes 

 and putrefies, and the Hypocera was formerly thought to be the cause 

 of the foul brood. H. vitripennis has been bred from the nest of a 

 Bomhus (Wood), and from nests of Vespa (Schmitz, Jaarb. Natuurh. 

 Genootsch. Limburg 1917, 118), and I possess myself a specimen bred 

 from Vespa vulgaris, the imago developed in May; Malloch mentions 

 (Ent. Month. Mag. 2, XIX, 1908, 205) that he took a number of this 

 species on ^Ve in moss, several specimens had the wings still undevel- 

 oped, and he saw one specimen emerge; this observation would speak 

 against the species living as larva in wasps nests unless the pupæ 

 had come from a nest in the neighbourhood, which I think probable. 

 Schmitz (1. c.) mentions, but as uncertain, mordellaria as bred from 

 snails. An African species H. vectabilis has been bred from dried 

 Coleoptera (Brues, Ann. Mus. Nat. Hung. XI, 1913, 1) and another, 

 H. mollusvicora from a putrid Unio (Schmitz, Zool. Mededeel. 

 'sRijks Mus. Leiden, II, 1915, 7). — According to the above, it seems 

 that H. incrassata is a real parasite, vitripennis perhaps also, or it 

 feeds on decaying matters in the nests, as the other recorded facts 

 point towards the larvæ feeding on various decaying matters. One 

 African species is thought to be myrmecophilous (Schmitz, Deutsch. 

 Ent. Zeitschr. 1915, 498). — ■ The only description of larva and pupa 

 is, so far I see, that given by Assmuss 1. c, and for the larva it seems 

 to be ratlier incorrect, but the larva is stated to be white, fmely 

 shagreened, and about 3 mm long; the pupa (Tab. II, fig. 15) seems 

 to be of the typical shape found in rufipes and others; it is described 

 as dirty yellow and has two curved and diverging anterior spiracular 

 tubes; the length is 3 mm; the eggs are described as longish oval, 

 broader at one end, yellowish white and of a length of about 0,4 mm. 

 The genus Hypocera is, as also remarked by Schmitz, evidently 

 not quite homogeneous; mordellaria with the mesopleura haired quite 

 to the suture, a strong pleural bristle and transverse combs on hind 

 tibiæ, is in these points very similar to the two species of Paraspini- 

 phora, Bohemanni and erythronota, which also stand apart in their 

 genus, and I think the three species are rather related; citreiformis 

 and vitripennis with no hairs on mesopleura, simple hind tibiæ and no 

 hairs on third vein are also deviating, and by their in the male enlarged 

 antennæ and the development of clypeus in the female, as well as by 

 the curved first vein and only one bristle on alula they approach the 



