30 Syrphidae. 



flood refuse; Eumerus lives as larva in onions, Syritta in dung or 

 decaying vegetables. These larvæ have a short or a little longer 

 posterior spiracular process, generally (perhaps always) with stellately 

 arranged threads at the apex; the larva of Myiolepta tapers behind 

 and has a telescopical spiracular process, and the same is the case 

 with Calliprobola, and here the process is rather long ; the pupæ have 

 all anterior spiracular tubes. The larva of Sericomyia has been found 

 in water in peat, and it is curious that it belongs to the rat-tailed 

 type. — The larva of Chrysotoxum has been found in decaying wood 

 and decaying vegetables; it has a short posterior spiracular process; 

 the pupa has no anterior spiracular tubes. — The slug-like larva of 

 Microdon lives in ant's nests, the pupa has small anterior spiracular 

 tubes. — Finally the larva of Cerioides lives in sap in ulcerated trees, 

 it has a rather long posterior spiracular process v^ith threads at the 

 apex; the pupa has no anterior spiracular tubes. 



In spite of the various appearance of the Syrphid larvæ, they 

 have, hov^ever, some features in common. The dermis is always 

 tough or more or less leathery, and it is chagrined from small spinules 

 or hairs, which are often divided; the single segments are not easily 

 observed as the body is more or less transversely corrugated, each 

 segment being subdivided into two to four corrugations. There are 

 in all twelve segments, the head included. Above the moulh opening 

 are two antennæ-like organs ; they are, or may be described as, two- 

 jointed, the last joint bearing two papillæ alongside; these two papillæ 

 are not similar, one has at the end a small refractive body, while the 

 other, the one nearest the mouth, is truncate and generally a little crenu- 

 lated at the apical margin. These organs, which are present and 

 nearly uniform in all cyclorrhaphous larvæ, are generally termed an- 

 tennæ; Lowne takes them to be the maxillæ; they have been studied 

 by Wandolleck (Zool. Anz. 1898, 283;; this author concludes that the 

 whole organ must be taken as antenna, and this in spite of his 

 observation, that the upper papilla with the refractive body gets its 

 nerve from the upper pharyngeal ganglion, while the other papilla, 

 which is nearer the mouth gets the nerve from the lower ganglion. 

 De Meijere suggests in his work over the Lonchopt€ra-\sir\Si (Zool. Jahrb. 

 Abtheil. fur Syst. XIV, 1900, 100) after comparing the organ with the 

 antennæ and maxillary palpi in the larva of Lonchopfera, that the 

 organ is really the antenna and maxillary palpus, which are here quite 

 close standing and fused; the papilla with the refractive body is the 

 antenna, the other the maxillary palpus; I think this interpretation is 

 quite correct. In the descriptions I term the whole organ the antenna-like 

 papilla. The mouth is either armed with hooks, sometimes bifid, or 



