52 FOREST FLIES. 



New Forest occupies much of the south-west portion of Hampshire. 

 1 am not aware of the precise locahty in Dorsetshire from which the 

 specimens in the British Museum were procured, but the whole of 

 Dorsetshire lies along or near the English Channel. Glamorganshire 

 lies the most to the south of any of our Welsh counties, and has a 

 long sea frontage ; and the localities of the Forest Fly mentioned by 

 Dr. Thomas, namely, Ystalyfera, Crynant, and Ystradgynlais, lie not 

 far from Neath (their position is found without difficulty in the map 

 showing railway stations in Bradshaw's * Kailway Guide '), and Neath 

 is only four miles from the mouth of the river of the same name. 



In the case of the North Welsh observations, the neighbourhood 

 in which the Forest Flies were found was the wide valley running 

 from Beddgelert, at the foot of Snowdon, to Portmadoc, a small seaport 

 town in Carnarvonshire (in the parish of Ynyscynhaiarn), eight miles 

 distant. Here ponies are kept on the mountains on both sides of the 

 valley in the summer, and a herd of ponies on the lowland both 

 summer and winter, and there is much horse traffic along the road 

 which runs beneath the Snowdon mountain. The Forest Flies were 

 noted as being only seen in the district from the beginning of June to 

 the middle of September, and the specimens sent me were captured 

 on one of the horses of a coach plying between Portmadoc and 

 Beddgelert, and forwarded on June 26th. The specimens and ob- 

 servations were sent by Mr. W. Morris Williams, of Pwlheli, in reply 

 to inquiries sent by the editor of the ' Veterinary Record ' to all the 

 members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in Carnarvon- 

 shire as to localities in which " Forest Fly " was to be found. 



The Forest Fly, when at rest with the wings laid fiat on the back, 

 as figured life size and magnified at p. 50, is three-eighths of an inch 

 in length from head to the extremity of the wings ; about a quarter of 

 an inch in length from head to tip of tail. The shape is flattish, and 

 the skin so hard and leathery that it is difficult to crush. 



The head is tawny yellow, with a dark stripe down the middle of 

 the face ; the compound eyes dark and very large, occupying the whole 

 sides of the head ; ocelli, or simple eyes, ivanting. The thorax, or 

 body between the wings, has on each shoulder a large patch or 

 irregular ring of tawny yellow, with more or less of the brown ground 

 colour in the centre, some small pale markings along the middle of 

 the hinder part of the thorax, and a pale spot in the centre of the 

 scutelluni (that is, of the small portion of the upper part of the thorax 

 just preceding the abdomen). The abdomen is brown, grey below, 

 and, like most of the fly, more or less beset with bristly hairs. 



Wings two, strong and membranous, slightly opaque and brownish 

 in colour, and furnished with several strong dark veins placed along 

 the front portion, as exactly figured from life at p. 50. 



