FAIRY FLIES 1457 



imagine I am within measurable distance of discov- 

 ering its nidus. The posterior wings are abnormal 

 mere bristles and yet they are of immense service 

 when hooked into the anterior ones, the black specks 

 just before the tips of these bristle-like wings being 

 the three booklets. 



The next representative, Cosmocoma, is Haliday's 

 Polynema, which, he states, affects the eggs of the 

 cabbage butterfly. C. fumipennis is of the most 

 strikingly beautiful character. I once saw the male 

 of this, but it was on the glass outside the greenhouse, 

 while I was inside and the door was locked. My 

 feelings at that moment can be better imagined than 

 described. 



Caraphractus cinctus has received a good deal of 

 attention and notoriety from the fact that in 1862 

 Sir John Lubbock discovered that it was aquatic in 

 its habits, using its wings for swimming under water. 

 It was christened Polynema natans by the worthy 

 discoverer of its natatorial habits; but in 1896 it 

 fell to my lot to prove it to be identical with Hali- 

 day's Caraphractus. 



Anaphes is found in almost any garden, and is fre- 

 quently confounded with Eustochus, but the solid 

 club is an unfailing character. It is also somewhat 

 larger than Eustochus. 



Anagarus contains many species of very delicate 

 yellow fairy flies, always present in gardens and 

 about ponds in fact, almost everywhere. I have 

 been again fortunate in discovering the life history 

 of several species belonging to this genus. One is 

 parasitic in eggs of dragon-flies, and three others in 



