ANTHOMYIANS. THE SYRPHUS FLIES. 211 



It is not improbable tiiat many of our Anthomyiidm will hereafter 

 be found operating as leaf-miners. 1 can recall, in former years, meet- 

 ing with miners within the leaves of various succulent plants, of which 

 the mines were so much like those of the above described species, that 

 there can be but little doubt that their rearing would sliow them to 

 belong to the same group — perhaps to the genus Pegomyia, embrac- 

 ing so many of the leaf-mining Dipteraof Europe. Mr. D. VV. Coquil- 

 let, of Anaheim, California, has informed me that during the past 

 season, he had bred from mines in the leaves of a wild sunflower 

 {Helianthus sp.?), several dipterous insects belonging apparently to the 

 MuscidcB. They were probably Anthomyians. 



Mallota posticata (Tabr.) Wlstn. MS. 



(Ord. DIPTERA : Fam. SYRPHIDiE.) 



Eristalis posticatus Fabr : Systema Antliatoruin, 1805, p. 237, no. 21. Non M. 

 posticata (Fabr.) of Osten Sacken ; Cat. Dipt. N. Amer., 1878, p. 135 (= 

 M. cimhiciformis (Fallen) Wlstn. MS.) ; non id.. Ball. Buff. Soc. Nat. Sci., 

 iii, 1875, p. 58 (-= M. cimhiciformis var. dentipes Wlstn. MS.); non id.. 

 Western Diptera, in Bull. G.-G. Surv. Terr., iii, 1877, p. 338 {=M Sackeni 

 Wlstn.). 



Milesia harda Say : in Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vi, 1829, p. 163 (not the $ ). 



Eristalis cortc^jw Wiedemann : Aussereurop. Zweifliig. Ins., ii, 1830, 165; lb , 

 p. 194, no. 62 {E. posticatus, translation from Fabr.). 



Imatisma posticata Macquart : Diptcres Exotiques, 1840, ii, p. 2, no. 68 ( (J only). 



Merodon halanus Walker: List Dipt. Ins. Br. Mus. , iii, 1852, p. 599. 



MerodonharduaVxcKKTiX): Guide Study Ins., 1869, p. 399, fig. 319; in Amer. 

 Nat., ii, Jan. 1869, ]). 593, pi. 12, figs. 10, 10 a (imago and puparium). 



Merodon hardus Glover : MS. Notes Journ'. — Dipt., 1874, p. 32, pi. viii, f. 30. 



Mallota hnrda O^iTK^i Sacken : in Bull. Buff. Soc. Nat. Sci., iii, 1875, pp. 58,64; 

 Cat. Dipt. N. Amer., 1878, pp. 135. 249. 



Mallota posticata (Fabr.). Williston : MS. Monograph of the Syrphidae, 1883. 



The Family of Syrphidae. 



The Syr2)Md(B, the name of the family to which this species belongs, 

 are commonly known by the name of Jlower-flies from the habit of the 

 perfect insects of frequenting flowers for the purpose of feeding upon 

 the pollen* and the nectar. They fly with great rajiidity, and may 

 often be seen hovering in the bright sunshine, for a long time almost 

 immovably, upon their rapidly vibrating invisible wings. The family 



*Although entomologists have expressed a doubt as to whether it was possible for ni- 

 sects possessing only a suctorial proboscis to devour such soHd bodies as pollen-grains, a 

 microscopic examination of tlie stomach of Diptera belonging to the order of Syrphida, 

 showed them to contain large quantities of pollen-grains, especially of plants belonging to 

 the order of Compositcn. (Science Gossip, for 1873, p. 41.) 



