25 

 Notes on a New Ephydrid Fly. 



BY A, WAKUKN. 



On October 26, as I was walking tlirough the tare and rice 

 flats abont a qnarter of a mile Ewa of the Kapahulu Koad 

 church, I noticed in a flnme, fed by an artesian well some little 

 distance away, what at first appeared to be water bugs. Look- 

 ing closer at these floating black creatures, it w'as observed that 

 they were flies with undeveloped wings, i. e. being newly 

 hatched. Soon two or three more came floating by, then some 

 specimens with fully expanded wings, then again some more 

 flies with wings not unfolded. The imwetable character of 

 these flies and the still unexpanded wings of some of them, led 

 me to believe that these specimens must breed in the water and 

 that the emerging must take place near by. A little search 

 proved this to be the case. It was found that the larvae of this 

 fly feed upon, or at least in, the green algae conmion in flumes 

 and fresh water anywhere, as both the larvae and the puparia 

 w^ere found in the algal masses in the flume. A number of 

 puparia were also found hooked to the sides of the flume near 

 the surface of the water. 



This fly was traced down in S. W. Williston's tables found 

 in his book, "The IS^orth American Diptera", to the genus Ily- 

 tliea of the family Ephydridae. No record could be found of 

 any species of this genus being found here. It is no doubt one 

 of the many species of flies of these islands not yet described. 



Larva. — The larva is a slender, footless grub, ending pos- 

 teriorly in a fork, the branches being about 1 mm. long. At 

 the end of either branch is a whorl of four chitinous hooks. 

 The length of the larva is about Gl/o mm. long by % mm. wide. 



PuPAEiuM. — As the puparium is the last larval skin, the 

 pupal stage also possesses the hooked caudal branches. The 

 puparium in general appearance, not including the caudal 

 branches is roughly scalloped, or segmented, and spindle- 

 shaped. The color is dark brown. Length, exclusive of caudal 

 appendages, about 5 mm. ; greatest width, about l^/o mm. 



Adult. — ISTo further description will be given of the adult 

 form until more is learned about this species. 



Proc. Haw. Ent. Soc, III, No. 1, September, 1914. 



