186 ' [August, 



ON THE BRITISH SPECIES OP PHOllA. (Part I). 

 BY DR. JOHN H. WOOD. 



From time to time I had dabbled in the Phoridce, that is to say, 

 whenever I came across a large or interesting looking species 1 had 

 taken the trouble to preserve it, and in this way had enabled Mr. 

 Yerrall to include several good things, as Pliora trinervis, urhana, 

 dorsata^ &c., in the second edition of liis List. But until I obtained 

 a copy of Becker's monograph on the family " Die Phoriden," 

 I had done no systematic work among them. Here, however, was a 

 text book up to date^ and since then I have devoted a good deal of 

 time to the subject and have amassed a large amount of material. It 

 has, however, become evident in the course of the investigation that 

 whilst our author's treatment of his Grcmp I in the genus Pliora is in 

 every way admirable, the treatment of his Group II, which contains 

 the smaller and more obscure forms, is not so satisfactory. In the 

 first place too great a tendency has been shown, I think, to sink good 

 species as varieties, and in the second place many perfectly distinct 

 forms have been omitted altogether — a circumstance to be ascribed 

 in all probability to the deficiencies of the collections he consulted, for 

 it is, perhaps, no wonder that insects so numerous in species and in 

 many cases so small in size should not appeal to every one. 



Nevertheless, there is much to commend them to our notice. 

 One point greatly in their favour is that they may be found all the 

 season through, being among the earliest insects to appear in the 

 spring and the last to disappear in the autumn. Then we may look 

 for them almost anywhere — in our houses, where they form the bulk 

 of the small fry that run up and down the windows ; in our gardens, 

 especially if there be some damp corner with a good rubbish heap in 

 it ; in the woods, fields, and marshes. Many of the species are fond 

 of running like the Platypezidce over the leaves of shrubs, others 

 again frequent flowers, especially the umbels of Heracleum spliondylium 

 and Anrjelica syJvestiis, but the great majority usually stay down below 

 at the ground level and require the sweeping net to bring them to 

 light. Then the trunks of trees are often worth examining. Carrion, 

 too, should never be neglected, especially in the spring of the year. 

 But to be productive the carrion must be lying on the ground, for the 

 gamekeeper's larder with its victim's nailed to a tree or rail fails to 

 attract them. Let me give a striking illustration. On one occasion 

 I had carefully looked over a string of moles suspended across some 

 palings without being able to detect a single Phora on them, but no 



