SOLDIER FLIES 



(Family Stratiomy tides.) 



There are certain rather broad, but rather flat-bodied flies of 

 divers structure, but separated from other flies by the characters 

 given in the table, which are not especially remarkable in their 

 appearance except in some aberrant forms, and which are not 

 especially numerous or notable, which are grouped together in 

 this family. Comstock has called them the "soldier flies," on 

 account of bright colored stripes with which some species are 

 marked. They are also dark colored and metallic and are not 

 hairy or bristly. Some of the brightly marked ones look like 

 Syrphus flies and some of them have a superficial resemblance to 

 some of the solitary wasps. The wings are usually clear, but 

 are sometimes smoky or brown. They are found generally in 

 marshy places on flowers and vegetation, and their larvae live in 

 the water, in the earth, in moss, in decaying wood, and in ants' 

 nests, and there are observations on record which seem to show 

 that the larvae of the curious American genus Hermetia may live 

 in bee hives, and in the nests of wild bees. At all events, H. 

 illucens has been seen hovering about bee hives and thrusting its 

 eggs through cracks in the hives. The aquatic species are not con- 

 fined to fresh water, but at least one is known to inhabit salt water, 

 and one form lives in some of the alkaline lakes of the western 

 states. 



Some of the larvae are carnivorous, while others feed upon 

 decaying vegetable matter. 



The aquatic forms feed upon very small aquatic organisms. 

 The eggs are laid in overlapping layers upon the under sides of 

 the leaves of aquatic plants, or they are laid upon the surface of 

 the water. The larvae are elongate pointed and flattened. We 

 hardly know enough about the development of any one North 

 American form to draw up a typical life history, but several of 



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