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DIPTERA. 



Dipterous Notes and Queries. 



By W. Wilson Saunders, F.R.S. 



Can any of the numerous readers of the Annual give me 

 any information respecting the insects, some portion of 

 whose economy I shall attempt hereafter shortly to de- 

 scribe ? I ask the question, being aware that a number of 

 our Entomologists are now much interested in the study of 

 the habits and economy of the 31icro-Lepidoptera, and it 

 will have probably happened to them, that in their investi- 

 gations they will have found some of my favourites— the 

 Diptera — where a moth was expected to appear. I here 

 allude to those Dipterous larvae which mine in the leaves of 

 plants, and work galleries very similar in construction to 

 some produced by the larvae of various species of Micro- 

 Lepidoptera, so much so that it requires a very practised 

 eye to detect to which order of insects the work of the little 

 miner belongs. Other Dipterous larvae make gall-like •ex- 

 crescences on various plants, which are exceedingly interesting 

 and well worthy of careful examination. My queries belong 

 to both miners and gall-makers, and I will therefore divide 

 my Notes into two divisions, depending on these peculiarities 

 of economy. 



First, then, as to miners. 



I. The leaves of Conyza squarrosa are mined in a very 

 tortuous manner, particularly near the margin, by an elongate, 



