1911.. 69 



Is Leaf Mining one of the Larval Habits of Aphiochseta ?. — In the January 

 Niunber of this Mag-azine for 1910, Mr. Malloch records the breeding, as he 

 believed, of Phora {Apliiocliieta) rufi2)es from blotch mines in the leaves of the 

 common turnip. On reading this announcement I was reminded of an old 

 experience of my own, about the time I began seriously to work at the Diptera. 

 I had collected one auttunu, in what year I forget, the gallery mines of a 

 Dipteron in the root leaves of tlie carline thistle {Carlina vulgaris). They 

 were placed in a pot that had been iised in previous years for rearing Nepticulx, 

 and which had for many months been out of doors, uncovered, and fully 

 exposed to the weather. In it was a layer of half decayed leaves, which I did 

 not remove, thinking it wordd be just the thing for the grubs to ptipate in. 

 Early the following summer, 7 or 8 Aphiochasta rata appeared, bred, as I 

 naturally concluded, from the thistle leaves. But when I came to consider the 

 matter more carefully, it seemed possible, indeed probable, that the pabulum 

 had really been the old half-decayed vegetable matter, and that it was this 

 that had tempted a female rata to enter and lay her eggs during the time that 

 the pot was open and exposed ovit of doors. That this was the true explana- 

 tion, a recent observation seems to show. 



Last Slimmer the seedling onions in the garden were badly attacked by 

 Phorhia cilicrura, and as I had not before met with the insect, I gathered a 

 good supply of the plants and placed them in a covered glass vessel. Very 

 soon the plants rolled into so soft and wet a mass, that the cover had occa- 

 sionally to be removed to give ventilation. One day as I was taking out a 

 recently emerged Phorbia, I noticed in a moist corner a colony of little wliitish 

 grubs, living in the semi-liquid stuff. They pupated in good time and produced 

 quite a host of Aphiochxta rufipes, the very same species that Mr. Malloch 

 believed he had bred from the blotch-miner of the turnip. The fly is one of 

 the most constant inmates of our houses, and there can be no i-easonable doubt 

 that the parent insect in this case had entered the vessel at a time when the 

 cover glass was removed in order to oviposit in the rotting onion plants. If, 

 then, leaf-mining be indeed one of the modes of life of Aphiochseta, it has yet 

 to be proved. — John H. Wood, Tamngton, Hereford : February, 1911. 



Diptera in Perthshire. — In the volume of this Magazine for 1909, pp. 65 — 66, 

 I gave a short list of Diptera taken in the Blairgowrie district of Perthshire 

 during 1908. The following notes refer to species identified since, most of 

 them having been captured during the last two seasons. Those marked with 

 an asterisk have not, I think, been liitherto recorded from the county. 



Passing over the Nematocera, a good many species of Avhich have been 

 identified, I may mention Chrysops relicta, Mg., in Jvme resting on shrubs &c., 

 round a small pond, only once seen on the wing ; Tabanus sudeticus, Zlr., J , 

 11.7.10; *Dysmachus trigonuSjMg., several, in Jiuie ; Bonibylius canescens, Mik., 

 in some numbers over sandy banks in June and July ; Thereva nobilitata, P., 

 both sexes, 16.6.10; *Gloma fuscipennis, Mg., $ , 9.7.10; *Hilara matrona, Hal., 

 in July and August; *Dolichopus simplex, Mg., J', 10.7.10; *D. longitarsis, 

 Stan., in July ; *Hypophyllus crinipes, Staeg., S > l''^.6.10, at Clunie Loch — I 



