SOME NOTES ON THK GENIiUA PLATYPHOKA, ETC. 277 



specimen was unfortunately lost, and the species was never found 

 again until July 6th, 1901, whon Dr. Wood captured a specimen in 

 Stoke Wood, Herefordshire," and subsequently J. J. P. X. King took 

 another in the New Forest.' It will thus be seen that during all this 

 time the host, or hosts, of this parasitic Dipteron remained unknown. 

 On July 11th, 1913, I captured a specimen which was running about 

 in my large F. sanr/uinfa observation nest", and as I had kept this 

 colony in captivity for four years, the fly must have bred out from F. 

 fasca cocoons, of which large numbers had been given to the ants to 

 bring up as slaves. On July 4th, 1914, 1 captured a specimen in 

 some sphagnum from a F. picea nest from the New I^rcst, and on 

 July 12th I observed a specimen in the very large glass bowl which 

 contained my F. picea observation nest, also from the New Forest. 

 On July 23rd, 1914, I found a number of small red Dipterous pupa3 

 in nests of /*'. picea in the New Forest, these I brought home with 

 more of the ants, and introduced some into my observation nest and 

 others into tins containing earth and a few of the ants. July 29th 

 another was captured in the bowl, and on July 31st one hatched out 

 in one of the tins. Before leaving town I took (the bowl) my large 

 observation nest to the British Museum, where Mr. Edwards kindly 

 took charge of it, and he made the following captures in it : August 

 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 17th; on 18th another was 

 observed, and on September 10th the last specimen to hatch out was 

 captured. On August 11th a specimen hatched from one of the red 

 pupjc, some of which I had isolated in a small plaster nest and taken 

 away with me. 



Aenigmatias blattoides, Mein. 



Meinert described this aberrant apterous Phorid in 1890 from a 

 specimen he had taken in a nest of F. fiiaca in Denmark- (but for 

 some unknown reason he suggested it might be associated with the 

 nests of mice), and a second example exists in the Copenhagen 

 Museum, also taken by him. 



In 1898 Mik suggested that Acnii/iiiatias might be the female of 

 riati/phora, but he gives no reasons for this opinion [" Wien. Ent. 

 Zeitschr.," 17, 204 (1898)] . 



In 1908 Wasmann, at Luxemburg, found a specimen in an obser- 

 vation nest of F. cx^ecta into which ho had introduced a number of 7^'. 

 fasca cocoons ; and he obtained a second specimen, also at Luxemburg, 

 from fuHca cocoons.' 



On July 21st, 1913, I captured a specimen in a nest of F. fiisca 

 under a stone at Nethy Bridge, in Inverness-shire" — this H. Schmitz 

 has since named var. hiijldandicay' 



On July 14th, 1914, I captured a specimen in my observation nest 

 of F. picea before mentioned, and on July 29th and 80th specimens 

 hatched out in the tins before mentioned. On August 10th a specimen 

 hatched from the Dipterous pupa3 before mentioned, isolated in a small 

 plaster nest ; and on August 13th Edwards found a specimen running 

 on the sphagnum in the bowl. 



This certainly seems to prove that /'. liibhacki is the male of A. 

 blattoideti. The hosts are Formica ftisca'and F. picea, and in the case 

 of the latter the fly larvic must have emerged from the cocoon before 

 they pupated. 



