MICROPTEROUS FLY. 89 



Type. — Mr. Green has generously presented the type specimen to 

 the Indian Museum, in which a large proportion of the type 

 specimens of the Indian and Ceylon species of Diptera are now- 

 preserved. 



Biology. — Unfortunately it is possible to say very little about the 

 biology of R. pulici forme. Mr. Green found the only known 

 individual of the species running in and out of a foraging-party of 

 the common predaceous ant Lobepelta ocellifera in his garden at 

 Peradeniya. The point at which he took it was over a hundred 

 yards distant from the nest, whence the ants had emerged. It 

 would be interesting to know the functions of the long elbowed 

 proboscis of this species and of its ally the African Pdyllomyia 

 testacea. It does not appear to be adapted either for piercing sohd 

 bodies, or for Hcking or sucking nourishment from their surface, and 

 the tip is devoid of sensory structures to an unusual extent. 

 Possibly it may prove useful in the transmission of liquid food from 

 the mouths of the ants to that of their guest, but this is, of course, 

 no more than a conjecture, for we know nothmg of the social 

 relations that may exist between the two insects. 



Plate I., Figs 1 to 3. 



Rhynchomicropteron puliciforme, gen. et sp. nov. 



Fig. 1. — Lateral view of the whole insect, x about 22. 



Fig. 2. — Head and proboscis in profile, more highly magnified. 



Fig. 3.^ — Oblique lateral view of the head. 



a. = third joint of the antemia ; ar. = arista ; e. = eye : p. - 

 proboscis ; pa. = palpus ; h. = halter ; w. = wing ; s. = scutellum. 



6(2)12 



