2(14 ' [September, 



yellowish, two-jointed in both sexes. Thorax rather dark brownish, with a slight 

 reddish tinge ; membrane between mesonotum and pleurae whitish. Mesonotum 

 with two longitudinal lines of hair, scutellum with eight or nine bristly hairs 

 round its margin. Abdomen long and cylindrical in the female, shorter in the male, 

 brownish with the membranoiis areas whitish ; male hypopygium rather broad, its 

 claspers large, thick, nearly cylindrical, and a little less than twice as long as 

 broad, truncate at the tip, with one large spine at the inner apical angle. Legs 

 uniformly brownish ; tarsi of front and middle legs slightly longer, those of 

 the hind legs as long as the tibiae ; no combs of spines or bristles at tips of 

 tibiae. Wings with a very slight brownish tinge, fully developed in both sexes, 

 but a little shorter in the male. Ei reaching costa considerably before the 

 fork of M ; Es arising about the middle of Ei, but its basal section (the "cross- 

 vein ") is indistinct ; tip of M3 noticeably nearer the apex of the wing than 

 that of Es ; Sc nearly half as long as Ei ; costa extending five-sixths of the 

 distance from tip of Eg to tip of Mi + 2; no bristles on M or Cu. Halteres 

 brownish yellow. 



Length: <? body, 2 mm., ^ wing, 1.6 mm. $ body, 2.7-3 mm., $ wing, 

 2.3-2.5 mm. 



Tijpe presented to the British Museum by Mons. Keilin. 



Mr. W. E. Tbonipson found the larva of this species in large 

 numbers in rotten wood, at Barton Mills, Cambs., on April 20th of 

 this year. In Mons. Keilin's keeping, they pupated about May 1st, 

 and adults hatched on May 6th and 7th ; on May 8th all the females 

 had laid fertile eggs, and they died on that day, the males surviving 

 three days longer. 



He is describing the larva in his forthcoming work. It is of 

 special interest, he informs me, in possessing a pair of mandibular 

 glands, which are atrophied in nearly all Diptera. 



August 3rd, 1915. 



The tarsi of Homalota (Meotica) exilis Er. — In confirmation of Dr. Sharp's 

 statement in the July number of the Ent. Mo. Mag., that the anterior tarsi of 

 this species are 5-jointed, I may say that in 1908 I made the same discovery, 

 and to make the matter more certain asked my friend Mr. J. H. Keys to prepare 

 some microscopic slides of the tarsi mounted in balsam ; these were quite con- 

 clusive. I had shortly before this received from Mr. de la Garde a small 

 narrow foi'm which I thovight might be specifically distinct from exilis, but 

 Capt. Deville, to whom I sent the specimens, returned them as a small narrow 

 form of the latter. — E. A. Newbert, 13, Oppidans Eoad, N.W. : July I7th, 1915. 



