26 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Prodromus, vi. 211)." In September Mr. Inchbalcl sent bred 

 specimens to Mr. Meade, who then clearly determined them to be 

 Eondani's C. sulcans. In October I received from Mr. Norgate, 

 through Miss Ormerod, more specimens of both sexes, both 

 bred and captured. These were despatched to Mr. Meade, with 

 Curtis's description of P. hetce : this reply resulted : — " I am very 

 much obliged to you for sending me the description by Curtis of 

 his A. (P.) hetce. There can be no doubt whatever that it is the 

 same as G. sulcans, though he has overlooked one essential 

 character, viz., that the palpi, though black at their tips, are 

 yellow at the base. His description, as also that by Rondani 

 {sulcans), only applies to the male. The female generally has the 

 legs of a paler colour than those of the male, and sometimes the 

 femora of the middle and posterior pairs of legs are entirel}^ 

 testaceous like the tibiae. This female is described by Rondani 

 under the name of C. effodiens. There is no doubt now that 

 Curtis's name ' hetce' must take the place of Rondani's ' sulcans,'' 

 but his description having appeared in an agricultural journal, 

 and not in a purely natural history work, has been overlooked by 

 all systematic writers, though Walker ought to have known it. 

 The Musca conform'is. Fallen, is a distinct species, of which I 

 have specimens. Fallen's description is so short that it may be 

 applied to several distinct species, but he is decided upon one 

 point, namely, that the antennjie in A. conformis have the two first 

 (basal) joints yellow, while in C. heta>- they are all three black or 

 grey." 



It is thus far satisfactorily cleared up that the mangold-fly is 

 Curtis's hetce, a most suitable name, and is not Fallen's conformis, 

 as commonly given by most continental authors. Dr. Brauer 

 says ''A. conformis, Fallen, hails from Sweden, and was described 

 by Meigen from examples in Wiedemann's collection. The types 

 are, however, no longer in tlie Winthem collection, consequently 

 an authentic determination is not now possible. Hence the 

 citation of Nordlinger is preferable." But Curtis's description 

 appeared eight years earlier, and is only reproduced in his ' Farm 

 Insects,' p. 397. 



The synonjanic difficulty is great, but that does not exactly 

 affect the economic question. That which we call the mangold- 

 fly, by any otlier name would be as noxious. It is, however, 

 necessary that a correct description should appear, and if any 



