178 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



carrion ? The flies I saw were almost all of the male sex ; out 

 of fifty which I captured only two or three were females. 



After leaving Buckingham I stayed for several days in a 

 retired country parsonage within the borders of Oxfordshire, and 

 I found the garden, shrubbery, and immediately surrounding 

 country very rich in rare and interesting species of Anthomyiidse. 

 A dry enumeration of the names of those which I captured would 

 be of little interest, so I will only mention those which are 

 particularly rare, or peculiar in their habits. 



Under a large standard apple tree in the kitchen garden 

 I noticed, on a sunny day following a wet morning, a number of 

 Homalomyias performing a joyous aerial dance, such as all the 

 flies belonging to this genus are fond of doing. Upon watching 

 them I observed that they were of three distinct kinds and sizes ; 

 some were small and grey in colour, others rather larger and 

 blacker ; and, darting between these, and glistening in the stray 

 beams of sunshine which stole through the leaves of the tree, 

 were a few individuals of a still larger size and brighter colour 

 sporting with the rest. I captured one or two of each kind with 

 my forceps, and found them to be H. canicularis, Lin., H. scalaris, 

 Mgn., and H. aprica, Hal. The two former are common every- 

 where indoors and out, but the last, which is the largest species in 

 the genus, must be considered rather rare, though it is widely dis- 

 tributed. The interest here attaches to the circumstance that 

 three distinct species were sporting and associating together. Is 

 this usual ? As I believe is always the case, the flies performing 

 this dance were all males. 



Pyezura iMrdalina. — On a shrub in the garden I captured a rare 

 Dipteron closely allied to the Homalomyias, but placed in a separate 

 genus by its discoverer. Prof. Rondani, who named it P.pardalina. 

 It differs from the Homalomyias by having a plumose instead of a 

 bare arista on the antennae. This little fly has hitherto only been 

 recorded as a native of Italy, not being mentioned in any of the 

 works I have seen on the Diptera of France, Germany, or 

 Scandinavia, as well as England. I am sorry to say I only found 

 a single male specimen, though I carefully searched for others. 



Hyetodesia [Aricia) ahdominalis, Zett., and Hydrostcea velutina, 

 Desv. — I will only mention these two other Anthomyids, both of 

 which I found. Botli are rare ; the former is recorded by Walker 

 as British, but I hud not previously seen it ; the latter lias not been 



