•879.] 95 



No. 2), but he recently informed me that he had since detected it. Having men- 

 tioned Dr. Spiingberg's paper, I take the opportunity of recommending the study of 

 it to all who take an interest in these insects. The species he describes in it are few 

 (only 18), and well known, but his method of handling the subject is both original 

 and masterly, and his outline figures of neuration on the two plates are so clear as 

 to leave nothing to be desired. He has studied these neural characters, for specific 

 differences, far more closely than I had, when I wrote my " Monograph of the 

 British Psocida," and with excellent results.- — R. McLachlan, Lewisham : bth 

 August, 1879. 



Fsectra diptera, Burm., at Strasbourg. — Mons. Ferdinand Eeiber kindly for- 

 warded a small collection of Neuroptera captured by him in and around Strasbourg. 

 In it I find one example of the very rare and interesting Psectra diptera, new to my 

 collection, and of which probably not more than a dozen individuals are known, 

 although widely distributed. In Britain it has not been found since the late Mr. 

 J. C. Dale took his solitary specimen in Somersetshire in June, 1843. There still 

 remains uncertainty as to the sex of all the examples seen by me. From the forma- 

 tion of the abdomen, I should be inclined to consider them ? , although it has been 

 stated that this sex ivith developed hind-wings exists in the Berlin Museum, and that 

 the dipterous (or nearly so) individuals are ^ . I have seen an insect with developed 

 hind-wings forwarded from Holland some few years ago by Mr. H. Albarda, in which 

 the abdominal formation did not appear to differ from that of the dipterous speci- 

 mens. Thus the following problems remain to be solved : (1) are the dipterous and 

 complete individuals of opposite sexes, and if so, which are S and which ? ? ; (2) 

 has the same sex occasionally developed hind-wings, although usually dipterous ? ; 

 (3) do the two forms pertain to distinct species ?. — Id. : '7th August, 1879. 



Exorista hortidana, Meigen. — In the July number (p. 44) is a short notice by 

 Mr. Porritt, of Huddersfield, of the occurrence of this parasitic fly in England, he 

 having bred it from the larva of Acronycta alni. He then quoted a remark which 

 I had made to him, that it had not been previously recorded as a British species. 

 In this I find I was in error, as Stephens inserted the name in his Systematic 

 Catalogue, published 50 years ago. Mr. McLachlan having very kindly examined 

 his collection (now in the British Museum), cannot, however, find any specimen so 

 labelled, therefore it is very doubtful whether he knew it. 



My friend Mr. Porritt has attached too much importance to the circumstance 

 of a Dipterous insect being new to Britain, for this order has been so much neglected 

 here, that novelties, by which I mean species undescribed by Walker in the " Insecta 

 Britannica," are of frequent occurrence in the experience of any one who has paid 

 much attention to this extensive and interesting tribe. 



The Tachiniidce, which are all parasitic upon the larvse of other insects, are 

 very difiieult to determine ; and many points in their economy are only imperfectly 

 understood. Thus some species, as Exorista vulgaris, prey upon the larvae of 

 several different moths, while others appear to confine themselves to those of par- 

 ticular species. Much information might be gained upon this interesting subject, 

 if the numerous British lepidopterists who rear so many of their specimens from 

 pupae, would carefully preserve all the parasitic Diptera which they breed in the 

 place of butterflies or moths ; noting the name of the species to which the pupa 

 belongs. I shall be very glad to examine any fly thus bred, and will endeavour to 

 name it if sent to me. — E. H. Meade, Bradford : August llth, 1879. 



