163 



the group to which these species belong than iu any other, and it' the 

 present unwieldy genus " Ghrysopa " be hereafter disintegrated (as I 

 think it most undoubtedly will), it is possible that the importance of 

 the fact will not be overlooked. 



Lewisham, London : 



Sth November, 1883, 



NOTES ON DIPTERA. 

 BY J. E. FLETCHEE. 



Some time ago, Mr. J. B. Hodgkinson kindly sent me a few 

 specimens of a small yellow Trj/peta, which was new to me, with the 

 information that they werfe bred from larva? which mined the leaves of 

 Impatiens noU-me-tangere. I submitted a specimen to Dr. Meade, 

 who obligingly informed mo that he could detect no difference between 

 it and Trypeta aJternata, Fall., the hip-feeder. I have recently had 

 the means of comparing the Iinpafiens-ieeder, with the hip-feeder, 

 having bred the latter last May, and need not say that where Dr. Meade 

 detected no difference I fail to see any. As these are diverse foods 

 for the larvae, I should be glad if observers, having access to the 

 Impntiens, would ascertain and make known the time during which 

 the larva feeds ; the kind of mine it makes ; whether it pupates in the 

 mine or descends to earth ; and the time of emergence of the imago. 



As I walked in a country road near here, about the middle of 

 August, I was struck with the sight of a small insect with what seemed 

 a long straw-coloured tail, flying slowl}^ and deviously about four feet 

 above the road. Slackening my pace, and watching the creature, I 

 observed it turn towards the foot-path, and alight some three feet in 

 front of me, dropping its "tail" when about three inches from the 

 ground. Approaching sufficiently near, I stooped down, and could 

 then see that the creature was a large Sarcophaga, but having no means 

 of capturing it, I am unable to indicate the species. Its "tail" was a 

 piece of hay-stem, some 2| inches long. 



For several years past I have grown a patch of shallots, being 

 uniformly successful with them until last year, when they were 

 moderately attacked by Diptera, which, however, I was glad to find, 

 as I was desirous of breeding them. I noticed two species of larva), 

 one much larger than the other, and when the images appeared in the 

 autumn and following spring, they proved to be Cyrfoncura stahulans, 

 and Fhorbia cepetorum, Meade. This year, about a peck of shallots 



o 2 



