Vol. 1.] Jones. — Catalogue of tJte Ephydridae. 159 



same as that of the salt-marsh mosquitoes, which are often 

 found in the same ponds. The adult flies abstract their 

 nourishment from the surface of the water in which their 

 larvffi live. They are especially fond of decaying animal 

 matter, and will collect in swarms on water containing dead 

 crabs or other animal bodies. The puparia are fastened in 

 clusters to floating bits of vegetation and some even to the anal 

 siphons of others. The adults crawl freely about over these 

 floating puparia and lay their eggs upon them. These clusters 

 of flies and puparia are shown in Plate I. 



The puparia are very susceptible to the attacks of Chalcid 

 parasites, and furnish an excellent breeding ground for them. 

 From an aquarium in which I have bred out about seventy 

 Ephydrids, seven of these Chalcid flies have emerged from the 

 pupae. 



Ephydra cinerea, n. sp., d and p. -Related to E. Jiiani^ 

 Say, but differs in the vittae of the thorax, the green of the 

 front and the very light color of the lower part of the legs. 

 Entire insect densely cinereous pruinose, giving it a gray ap- 

 pearance seldom seen in members of this genus. Front brassy 

 green, only slightly shining and densely pruinose; ocelli light 

 orange yellow, ocellar triangle with dense fulvous pruinosity; 

 third antennal joint also fulvous, almost umber; eyes spotted 

 with black and deep orange yellow in varying proportions. 

 Thorax above with three broad vittee, varying from olivaceous 

 at the margins to brassy green in the center; these stripes 

 sometimes merge into an olivaceous patch with silky luster on 

 the back of the mesothorax, usually obsolete on the scutellum. 

 Abdomen usually eoncolorous, sometimes becoming yellowish 

 toward the tip, with purplish bronze reflection, which is in- 

 visible except when the dense grayish pruinosity is rubbed off. 

 Joints of trochanters, knees, tibiae, and tarsi, except last joint, 

 pale honey yellow densely clothed with grayish white pubes- 

 cence; last joint of tarsi eoncolorous with body or slightly 

 darker. A pair of strong macrochaetse, as strong as the four 

 outwardly directed above each eye, just outside the ocellar 

 triangle at the center of its sides; a very small, erect bristle 

 just above the lowest ocellus ; another, slightly larger, directly 

 above this at the center of the triangle ; a slightly longer pair 

 barely inside the upper ocelli, and two more pairs directly 



