396 Professor E. B. Poulton on 
“This swarm was noted all over our quarters: every 
house our Officers were present in at that time reported 
them.” 
“We none of us have ever come across a case like this 
during our service in the country. . . .” 
Colonel Yerbury believes, from his knowledge of the 
fly, that it is erroneous to suppose that it actually hunts 
and kills living termites. He has written to me as follows 
upon the subject :—‘ Oct. 11, 1906. With reference to 
the Ochromyia jejuna question I can only reiterate my 
opinion that it is absolutely impossible for this fly to 
kill anything. All Muscidxe will go to moisture, and as 
winged termites come to grief in many ways, doubtless 
many a crushed termite attracts a muscid. The tongue 
of O. jejuna and O. fuscipennis is an extraordinary organ, 
but it is not that of a predaceous fly but more closely 
resembles that of Glossina without the piercing tip which 
the Tsetse flies possess. Possibly this 1s the explanation 
of my observation * in Ceylon of these flies taking away 
grains of sugar from large ants (Lobopelta and Camponotus), 
z.¢. that the tongue acts as a suction pump—so when it is 
a case of ‘pull devil, pull baker’ between the fly and the 
ant the former gets the best of it.” 
If the opportunity should occur again, it is to be hoped 
that the flies may be subjected to a most minute and 
critical observation, in which special attention is directed 
to the tongue. If such examination should prove that 
Ochromyia is undoubtedly predaceous, we should be driven 
to suppose that the tongue contains some piercing instru- 
ment, undiscovered and concealed, or that the thin body- 
walls of the termite are penetrated by suction alone. The 
statement of these alternatives may serve as some slight 
guide to future observations. 
The Prey of the Larval Syrphid Fly, Xanthandrus comtus, 
Harr.,= Melanostoma hyalinatum, Fln., No. 309. 
The preceding examples of predaceous Diptera have 
been confined to the perfect insect; but as the material for 
the present Memoir accumulated, I received an instance of 
* Colonel Yerbury tells me that he observed this on the verandah 
of the Rest House, Kanthalai, Oct. 19, 1890. 
