378 



not on tlie ^ying the Hies c;m be seen sitting on the leaves of trees, 

 slirubs, and all sorts of lower phmts, the exuding sap of -whieli probably 

 constitutes their natural food. Neither in Florida nor at other places 

 in the South did I notice them near the ocean shore, perhaps because 

 they are unable to endure the constant breeze. It is farther my experi- 

 ence that the flies are exceedingly abundant only wherever the soil is 

 sandy; they are either entirely absent or hardly noticeable in regions 

 where the soil is rich and heavy. During the month of August I 

 traveled through the " black laud " region of the cotton States, and 

 was annoyed by the flies only at two places, viz, in the suburbs of 

 Columbus, Tex., where the soil is dry and light, and at Selma, Ala. 

 At the latter place not a single specimen was to be seen on the right 

 side of the Alabama River, where the soil is black and heavy, while 

 just across the river, where it is sandy, the flies were almost as bad as 

 I have experienced them iu the interior of Florida. Persons visiting 

 or residing iu Florida during winter or early spring are not molested, 

 the flies at this season being either not numerous enough to attract 

 attention, or they are not aggressive. Mr. Hubbard says that they com- 

 mence to be troublesome when the weather gets really warm, or about 

 the month of May. In July, with the beginning of the rainy season, 

 they are out iu full force, but how long they continue to torture man and 

 animals has not been ascertained. 



Life history. — As stated above, we know nothing thus far of the earlier 

 stages of the genus Hippelates. The records* of the larval habits of 

 other genera of the family Osciuidne show that the larva^ of the majority 

 of them breed in stems of graminaceous i)lants. It is possible that 

 Hippelates has the same habit, but Mr. Hubbard remarked that "if 

 the insect is really an above-ground leaf-miner or stem-miner its work 

 would have been noticed by him, as, on account of the great number of 

 the flies, the work of the larvie must be very extensive and readily 

 seen." The records further show that some other Oscinid larv;e breed 

 in decaying stems of plants, in worm-eaten nuts, and under the bark of 

 old trees, and Mi\ Marlatt suggests '' that the attractiveness of the 

 moisture of the eyes and of sores would indicate that the larva is per- 

 haps saprophagous in its habits, and may be found in decaying 

 vegetation." 



The sandy regious of Florida, where the Hippelates flies occur most 

 numerously, are for the most x>art covered with open x>ine woods, and 

 their chief characteristics consist in numerous smaller or larger ponds 

 and lakes which are usually surrounded with a belt of rushes and reeds. 

 From this feature of the country I am iuclined to believe that the Hip- 

 pelates larvai will be found to live either within the stems of the liviug 

 reeds or under or within the piles of the tlecaying reeds which usually 

 line the shores of the lake. 



""As collected by Braner (Die Zweiflligler d. k. Hofui. Wien, part 3, pp. 84, 85), and 

 Townseud (Cau. Eut., 25, 1893, p. 14). 



