1910.] 277 



flies might perhaps feed on the diuig themselves, the energy conserved 

 by the avoidance of any necessity to search for their own food being 

 devoted to the extra drain on the parental system caused by a pupi- 

 parous method of reproduction. 



" These large Coprid beetles also carried a few mites." 

 On his return to England Mr. Fletcher exhibited specimens at a 

 meeting of the Entomological Society on June 2nd, 1909, and his 

 efforts at getting them named ended in their being sent l)y Mr. Hugh 

 Scott, Curator of the University Zoological Museum at Cambridge, to 

 the present writer. 



As the species does not appear to have been described, it is 

 proposed to name it after its peculiar habits. 



LiMOSINA EQUITANS, Sp. U. 



A brownish-yellow species ; frons somewhat prodviced ; thorax with only 

 one pair of dorso-central bristles ; scutellum with only fovir marginal bristles ; 

 last joint of the tarsi dilated and with large pvUvilli. Female abdomen with 

 remarkably small dorsal chitinous plates. 



Head (fig. 1) brownish -yellow ; frons uniformly dull, paler in front than 

 behind, more prodviced than usual in this genus but with the usual bristles of 

 Limosina ; the orbital bristles are, however, small, placed closer together and 

 further back than usual, the front one not being half way from the vertex ; the 

 central row of crossed bristles is composed of some six pairs, smaller than 

 usual; the produced part of the frons bears a number of small bristles on 

 each side ; the small keel between the antennae is very narrow and short, not 

 continued down the face, which is concave ; the yellow antennae normal, with 

 the only slightly pubescent arista not so long as the frons. Eyes small. 

 Palpi yellow. 



Thorax brownish-yellow, the disc about the same colom- as the vertex and 

 occiput of the head ; dorso-pleural suture, upper part of pleurae, and metanotum, 

 somewhat paler ; chsetotaxy normal, with, however, only one pair of dorso- 

 central bristles and none of the acrostichal bristles strongly developed, the 

 usual sterno-plem-al bristle is not very large, but the prothoracal bristle and 

 the stigmatical bristle are well developed ; scutellum of the same colour as the 

 disc of thorax, with fom- equally strong marginal bristles, otherwise bare. 



Abdomen greyish-black, with a narrow yellowish-white hind margin to all 

 segments, and a wide yellowish-white membraneous strip each side, the last 

 segment and the hypopygium yellowish-brown, more the colour of the thorax. 

 The disc of the abdomen apparently bears scattered bristles, as usual longer at 

 the hind corners of each segment, the membraneous sides are moderately 

 thickly beset with short stubby bristles, as are the ventral chitinous plates, 

 and these bristles become very dense on the hind margin of the last ventral 

 plate, beneath which the genital lamellae are concealed. There are no long 

 bristles on the hypopygium, and the lamellas appear to be represented by fom- 

 sharp pointed and slightly curved processes. 



