THE INSECT WORLD. 345 



relieved by a bright red or yellow band or similar marking. 

 The wings are quite generally blackish and the antennae are 

 clubbed at the tip, dififering thus from the previous family. In 

 fact, the species are so peculiar that, having been once seen, they 

 can scarcely be mistaken. They are also predaceous in habit, 

 but not nearly so ravenous as the " robber-flies," besides being 

 much less abundant. 



A very interesting family is that of the " bee-flies," or Bomby- 

 liidie, which derive their common name from the tact that they 

 are more or less covered with dense, diverging, whitish or yellow 

 hair, giving them a close resemblance to certain bees. Many of 

 the species occur in open places, hovering over bare spots, 

 especially in spring, and they may be found at other seasons 

 flitting from flower to flower, often poised in mid-air between or 

 over them. There are two" rather distinct series, one of them 

 with robust species resembling a bumble-bee, and with a very 

 long tongue ; the other much more slender, the species re- 

 sembling flower-flies, with a much shorter proboscis and much 

 less contrasting colors. The former are typified in the genus 

 BombyliMS ; the latter belong to A?ithrax and allied genera. 

 Their food is honey obtained from flowers, and the adults are at 

 least innoxious. Among the species that occur early in the year, 

 some are of direct benefit in the orchard, where they aid in pol- 

 lenizing fruit flowers. The hairs composing the vestiture are 

 furnished with little spurs or processes, or are twisted, so that 

 pollen grains adhere readily. They are especially useful in 

 cross-poUenation from their habit of flying considerable distances. 

 The larvae, on the otiier hand, are parasites, and distinctly bene- 

 ficial in many instances. They prey upon the larvae of Lepidop- 

 tera, including many of the cut-worms, and also infest the egg- 

 pods of grasshoppers, forming one of the effective checks of the 

 migrating or " Rocky Mountain locusts" in this country. They 

 are less beneficial when parasitic upon bees and other Hyme- 

 noptera, but altogether the family may be said to contain chiefly 

 useful species. 



Sometimes we find in houses, under carpets, a slender little 

 larva nearly white in color, with a darker, rather indistinct, head, 

 but without obvious legs. It is usually looked upon with sus- 

 picion because of the locality in which it is found, but as a matter 



