106 H ' c - EFFLATOUN. 



a single row of short black spines ; usually the distal halves of 

 the hind tibiae are also rather swollen and curved ; generally the 

 pubescence on the legs is rather dense and long. 



Wings as a rule, rather greyish, with the radio-median eross- 

 i straight or vertical, and placed at or beyond the mid- 

 dle of cell M2; Kadius4 + 5 with a loop, which, in the Egyptian 

 species, is rarely almost as deep in the Eristalince; the turned up 

 part of Ml + 2 is remarkably undulated and at its upper margin 

 rattier reflexed; the median cross-vein has its lower end much 

 nearer the wing-margin than 'its upper end. 



Although this genus is very distinct and sharply define:! il 

 shows affinities with several genera. The incrassate hind femora. 

 elongate vertex, and the enlargement of the facets on the front 

 part of l lie eyes, seem to show relationship to Syritta. It also re- 

 sembles Pa m (j us in such characters as the turned up portion of 

 Ml + 2, the form and clothing of the face, the thorax and scutellum, 

 and in the habits of the adults, which appear to mimic small 

 aculeate Hymenoptera. -However, the habits of the larvae bring it in 

 relationship with two other genera which do not seem to be re- 

 presented in Egypt, Merodon and Xylota. 



This genus is not a very extensive one, there being about 80 

 known species, of which about twenty occur in Africa and the 

 rest in Europe (about twenty species), South Asia, Macassar, Aus- 

 tralia and Tasmania. 



Bouche in 1847 was the first to breed a species from 

 bulbs of the common onion (Allium Cepa), which were destroyed 

 by the larvae ; these lived inside the bulbs and pupated 

 either in the bulbs or in the neighbouring earth. Our common 

 species here, E. amoenus, has also been bred from Allium 

 Cepa by Mr. F. A. Willcocks of the Sultania Agricultural 

 Society, and in the Entomological Section, Ministry of Agricul- 

 ture; and E. vestitus from Potato tubers imported from Palestine, 

 Cyprus and Greece, as well as being bred from Battikh (water 

 melons), from Tul-Karam (Palestine), grapes f rom Mex (near Alex- 

 andria), and from the rotten stems of paw-paw from Tel-el-Kebir. 

 1 have also bred E. amoenus from larvae found in the rhizomes of 

 the german Iris (Iris germanica) in my garden, where a large bor- 

 der was almost completely destroyed by it, as well as by the larvae 

 of Syrittta. However, I believe that the damage was started by tne 

 "bulb mite" (Rhyzoglyphus hyacinthi) and not by the larvae 

 themselves, these merely continuing the damage, after decomposi- 

 tion of the tissue had been caused by "the bulb mite." 



According to Bouche the larva is dirty greyish yellow, spinu- 

 lose, wrinkled, and flat below; the anterior spiracles are brown; at 



