100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND. 



Awati (1920) did not fix M. nebulo on account of its scanty- 

 original description, and in dealing with the biology of one of 

 the Indian fhes with a four-striped thorax, 31. divaricata, he 

 added (? nebulo). In regard to this fly he stated that the egg 

 required about a day, the larva a day, and the pupa 4 to 6 days — 

 thus 6 to 8 days from egg to emergence ; while 4 to 8 days were 

 required for maturity, giving a total of 10 to 16 days. Egg- 

 laying occurred 4 to 10 days afterwards, the period elapsing 

 between the time of oviposition of a fly and that of its offspring 

 arising from such oviposition (i.e. from egg to egg) being from 

 19 to 28 days. 



PyreUia proerna Walker. 



This handsome greenish-blue fly, which in Brisbane so 

 commonly frequents cowdung for food and for the purpose of 

 oviposition, has been referred to in earlier papers by Johnston 

 and Bancroft as Lasiopyrellia sp. (1920a, p. 182) and Pseudo- 

 pyrellia sp. (1920b, p. 74; 1029c, p. 42). The species occurs in 

 North Queensland also. The fhes commonly become a deep 

 blue after having been dead a few days. 



Specimens taken by the senior author to the National 

 Museum, Washington D.C., and to the British Museum, were 

 determined by Dr. Aldrich as PseudortheUia viridiceps Macq. 

 and by Major Austen as PyreUia proerna Walker, respectively. 

 The material was compared by Austen with Walker's type 

 {a female — locality unknown) in the British Museum, and as 

 Walker^s name Musca proerna (List Dipt. Brit. Mus. 4, 1849, 

 p. 888) has a shght priority over Macquart's Lucilia viridiceps 

 (Dipt. Exot. Suppl. 4, 1850, p. 249) Walker's name is here 

 used. Townsend made Macquart's species the type of liis genus 

 PseudortheUia, hence if this prove to be vahd the correct name 

 will be PseudortheUia proerna (Walker). Dr. Aldrich stated 

 that PyreUia viridifrons Macq. was probably a synonym. 



Though we collected all the stages of tliis fly, we did not 

 keep records of the periods beyond noting that during May and 

 June the pupal condition lasted for 18 days. 



Johnston and Bancroft (1920b, p. 74) have shown that 

 under experimental conditions the fly readily breeds in horse- 

 dung and can become an intermediate host of the two 

 nematodes, Habronema musca and H. megastoma. 



