XII.— NOTES ON ORIENTAL DIPTERA. 



I. —NOTE ON SPHYRACEPHALA HEARSEYANA WEST- 

 WOOD, WITH A LIST OF THE ORIENTAL 

 SPECIES OF DIOPSIN^. 



By E. Brunetti. 



The capture by Dr. Annandale at Lucknow on April 26th this 

 year of Sphyracephala hearseyana in great abundance on the roof 

 of a dry drain, brings it to my memory that on December 4th, 1904, 

 I found the same species in the utmost profusion at the old Residency 

 at that city, where the specimens were clustered very thickly toge- 

 ther on the inside walls of the ground floor of that deserted building. 

 On being disturbed, they hovered for a moment or two, and 

 then settled again. The same species was found by me at Cawn- 

 pore a few days earlier, there too in extreme profusion, on the 

 shady side of, and beneath, a low arch spanning a nearly dry ditch 

 by the main road. I thought the blackness on the wall was only 

 dirt, until my native servant called my attention to the insects, of 

 which I took a large supply, — this species being the only one I 

 have myself taken in the East. 



The short thick eye-stalks easily separate this species (and 

 genus) from all other Oriental Diopsids, except the congeneric 

 cothurnata Big., which is separated from it by its wings being 

 marked instead of quite clear as in hearseyana. 



It would appear that the species of this family are addicted to 

 collecting in swarms on occasion, as Doleschall, writing in 1856, 

 mentions Diopsis dalmanni Wied. {attenuata Dol.) as swarming 

 over stagnant water at Djokjokarta, Java ; while Westwood, 

 still earlier (1837), speaks of Teleopsis sykesii Gray {Diopsis id. of 

 Westwood) as swarming at Hurreechunderghur, in the Western 

 Ghauts of the Deccan (altitude 3,900 feet) ; its habitat being 

 woody spots in ravines or woody hillsides, where the flies were to 

 be found clustering together on the rocks illumined by the sun 

 or hovering in such sun rays as pierced the foliage. 



Twenty- three species appear to be Oriental, distributed amongst 

 Diopsis, Teleopsis and Sphyracephala, all of which are legitimate 

 genera ; but it appears to me impossible, or at any rate inadvisable, 

 to subdivide Diopsis or Tdeopsis, especially on such variable and 

 difficult characters to estimate with certainty as the length of the 

 eye-stalks, thoracic and scutellar spines, etc., as has been done by 

 Rondani in establishing Diasemopsis and Hexechopsis. 



