158 Psyche [October 
to account for the introduction of F. auricularia into this estate 
in any other way than through the agency of imported plants. 
Their prodigious increase can also be explained with no less diffi- 
culty, for refuse or anything which one might expect to be favor- 
able food is not permitted to accumulate. Not having the time 
to devote to the subject, I was unable to determine upon what the 
earwigs were feeding. 
It seems quite important that the matter be investigated by 
economic entomologists, otherwise, F. auricularia might soon 
rival the familiar and unwelcome Blattella germanica as a house- 
hold pest. 
A NEW STRATIOMYID 
By CuHarLes W. JOHNSON, 
Boston Society of Natural History. 
This interesting fly was taken on one of my many collecting 
trips to the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. I have 
delayed recording it, hoping that additional material would be 
obtained. In the table of genera this would go in the genus Za- 
brachia Coquillett, but the form of the antennze would at once 
exclude it from that genus, while both venation and antennz bar 
it from the other genera of the group. Although lacking the 
anterior branch of the third vein, the position of the second and 
third veins is nearer that of Pachygaster than of Zabrachia. 
Berkshiria gen. nov. 
Third joint of the antennz oblong, about double the length of the first and second 
taken together; third joint with five annuli, the basal one broader than the others; 
arista terminal, style-like, about as long as the entire antenna; front with two 
longitudinal ridges; transverse suture deeply impressed; scutellum large, rounded, 
with a broad depressed margin; third longitudinal vein without the anterior branch; 
ends of the terminal joints of the tarsi with bristle-like hairs. Type B. albistylum 
sp. nov. 
Berkshiria albistylum sp. nov. 
Black; front shining, the two ridges forming deep central and orbital grooves, 
ocelligerous tubercle prominent; face receding, the orbits white; antenna yellow, 
arista white with its basal fourth black. Thorax sparsely covered with a whitish 
pubescence; humeri angulate with a small yellow spot at each point, a raised collar 
extending between the humeri, and a blunt spine on each side before the base of the 
