206 [September, 



perplexed as to the connection between them. Dr. Sharp, who was 

 then at Emery Down, and to whom I gave half of the store in the 

 stem which 1 cut off, pointed out to me, that as recorded in the 

 Cambridge Nat. Hist., vi, p. 400, the habits of Acrocera or Ogcodes 

 " are very peculiar, the larvae so far as known living as parasites 

 within the bodies of spiders or their egg-basfs." 



1 have now very little doubt but that the spiders I observed were 

 of the species that is the host of these parasitical flies ; but I do not 

 think their mimicry of the Or/codes has before been noticed. I can 

 only suggest that the fly is very local, and that where it occurs so 

 must the spider, and that its presence near the hole used by the 

 Hymenopteron was only accidental. From one pupa I raised the bee 

 which Mr. Morice informs me is Crabro interrupt us with very little 

 doubt. 



The hole in the thistle was probably due to its having been pre- 

 viously tenanted by a larva of the moth Qortyna flavaqo, which I have 

 bred from similarly perforated thistles. Altogether there must have 

 beeu more than fifty of the fly thus stored, dead, but quite fresh, and 

 with the exception of those that had been partially eaten, in good 

 condition. 1 am not aware if any instance has been recorded of the 

 storing up of these flies since Westwood noticed the fact in the 

 Modern Classification of Insects, vol. ii, pp. 1S9 and 545. 



Mallota cimbic/funnis, Fin. (eristaloides, Lw.). — 1 have two ex- 

 amples of this fly captured by myself in the New Forest ; one in 

 1804, the year in which it was first recorded, the other in 1805, for 

 which I could not get a name till 1 took them to South Kensington 

 and showed them to Mr. Austen. 



Microdon lati/rons, Lw. — On May 24th of this year I had the 

 good fortune to secure a specimen of this fly near Lyndhurst Koad 

 Station, towards Ashurst Lodge. It was sitting on a leaf rather near 

 the grouud. Although this appears to be only the second example 

 that has occurred in Britain, it was at once determined by Dr. Sharp 

 to whom I showed it, from a reference to Mr. Verrall's book ; and I 

 have sinced verified it by comparison with the unique specimen in the 

 British Museum. 



Stomphctstica Jlava, Mg. — I have bred this from pupae found in 

 rotten birch wood, April 30th; the flies emerged May (3th to 20th. 



Other good flies 1 have met with this year are Galliprobola (Spilo- 

 myia) speciosa (2) ; Dldceu fasciata, New Forest ; Merodon equcstris, not 

 uncommon in my garden at Shirley during June ; Anthrax fenestrata, 

 sitting on the hot sandy road near Denny Lodge, New Forest. 



Shirley Warren, Southampton : 

 July IQth, 1902. 



