DIPTERA BRED FROM THE PUPA IN 1885. 9 
spicuous for its ochreous-yellow head. The ovipositor, as Kalt- 
enbach rightly observes, ‘fis short in proportion to its body, 
scarcely exceeding the length of the last abdominal ring.” 
Phorbia jloricola, Zetterstedt, is my next hatch. This fly 
feeds in the larva-state on the marsh ragwort (Senecio aquaticus) 
in May and June, consuming the pulp of the receptacle, and con- 
verting it into a discoloured mass. ‘The receptacle, indeed, is 
completely hollowed out by the feeding of the larva, which is 
found singly within the void. It pupates within, and appears in 
July, or even earlier. The particulars of its feeding become in- 
teresting, the more so, as Dr. Meade says that the ‘life-history 
of the Anthomyide is but imperfectly understood.” The dis- 
proportion of the sexes, likewise, is singular, the female vastly 
predominating ; indeed, I only bred one male; all the rest were 
females. It requires a practised eye to detect the existence 
of the larva within the flower-head, as the evidence of its feeding 
is not outwardly very visible. 
The habits of the larva of Phytomyza lateralis, Meigen, are 
very like those of Phorbia floricola. It, too, feeds within the 
receptacle of the wild chamomile (Matricaria inodora), so 
common on the borders of our cornfields in the summer. Each 
flower-head mostly contains a single larva, though occasionally I 
find two. Its nesting-place in the receptacle is not so hidden as 
is the case in the last-mentioned fly. A dark spot among the 
disk-florets usually betrays its existence. The flies are very 
common; I bred them in considerable numbers—both sexes— 
during the first week in August. The fly is double-brooded, as 
T reared them again in October. The yellow lateral line makes 
the lively little fly easy to recognise. Kaltenbach states that the 
“larva feeds” on the unripe seeds. This is not my experience, 
though our food-plants are identical. He mentions further, that 
it feeds in the stems of the nettle and vervain—doubtless in 
these cases on the pulp! 
Those who have had the advantage of seeing Loew’s splendid 
work on the ‘European Trypetide,” and the wonderful wings he 
has photographed, will enter into the pleasure one feels in 
rearing these bar-winged flies from the larve, and tracing a 
portion of their life-history, by ascertaining the plant that feeds 
and protects them in their earlier and more helpless stages 
of growth. Loew figures 121 European species. Of these we 
ENTOM.—JAN., 1886. C 
