if 08.i 203 



JEschna rufescens. — The colled ion contains four only of tin's local Fen species : — 

 a male (162) Norfolk, July, 1905 (C. W.), and Norfolk (at side); a male (163) 

 -June 28, ISIS (.7. C. filled in) ; a female (164) Aug. 5, 1824 (J. C. filled in), 

 and Whittlesea Mere (at side) ; also a male (Kit) with a label bearing 1 1 or II (?). 



JEshna {sic) grandis. — Four specimens, two, a male (lf>5) and a female (166) 

 being unlabel led. The other two are: — a male (167) Parley Heath (at side) ; a 

 female (168) Kchurch, and Christchurch (at side). 



(To he continued). 



NOTES ON PHORIDM IN DUMBARTONSHIRE, WITH DESCRIPTION 

 OF A NEW SPECIES. 



BY J. R. MALLOCH. 



During the month of March, 1908, I spent some time searching 

 moles' nests in the hope that I might discover some species of 

 PhoridoB which had not yet occurred to me. I succeeded in obtaining 

 from one nest a large number of papas, which, though they did not 

 prove to belong to an unrecorded Bonhill species, were of a species 

 that is generally considered rare, i.e., urbana, Mg., and the closely- 

 allied tJioracica, Mg. I got forty pupa? from the nest and bred about 

 thirty urbana. There was no evidence of any carrion having been in 

 or about the nest, so that the inference is that the larva? fed upon 

 the mouldy grass, &c, which formed the outer portion of the nest. 

 A peculiar feature about the emergence of the flies is that they 

 sometimes took forty-eight hours to develop their wings. I paid 

 particular attention to most of them and I did not observe one case 

 in which the wings developed in less than twelve hours. I have 

 taken other species, notably the allied curvinervis, Beck., and also 

 abdominal is, Fin., in an undeveloped condition, but they always 

 attained maturity in an hour or two. Possibly the underground 

 habitat may have something to do with this peculiarity. Another 

 strange thing about the emergence of the specimens is that they 

 began to appear in the beginning of April. All my specimens that 

 I had netted were taken in June. This applies to both species. 

 Dr. Wood gives urbana as occurring under carrion in the spring ; 

 but in the north here even the common curvinervis does not appear 

 till May. The pupae were kept in a cold room, so that artificial 

 conditions could hardly be responsible for their early appearance, 

 especially after onl} r a fortnight's time. 



