128 Objects for the Microscope. 



The Scatophagse feed on smaller Diptera, and deposit 

 their eggs in dung, and these eggs are so shaped that 

 whilst they are warmed and nourished in the soft excre- 

 ment, they cannot sink, two little horns on either side 

 supporting them in it, which enable the young larva safely 

 to escape. 



LONCHOPTERA. 



Small flies, very active and abundant in marshy woods 

 and grassy spots. 



You can observe a difference here in the antennae ; the 

 roundness of the fifth joint and long arista ; the first three 

 joints are scarcely seen in this specimen. The wings will 

 give a good example of a simple veining, no transverse 

 vein at all, and the prsebrachial forked ; each vein is fringed 

 with delicate hairs. This is a male fly, and has two hairy 

 lamellae at the base of the abdomen. 



BIBEO. 



(One of the Gnat Tribe.) 



Look at the very different antennae projecting fiercely 

 forward, with nine joints ; the palpi on each side of the 

 tongue with five joints. The wings, how different from the 

 true Fly or Musca ! It has many veins, and thirteen areo- 

 lets, but so faint that we cannot see them all in this pre- 

 paration ; only the costal, sub-costal, and mediastinal being 

 distinctly marked. The legs are worthy of observation. 



The fore-tibia, with a circle of spines at the joint; the 

 fore-femur, very stout, and the coxa and trochanter are dis- 

 tinctly seen in this specimen. The larva of Bibeo lives in 

 the earth, feeding on decayed vegetable matter ; it has rows 

 of short hairs which it uses for locomotion, and twenty 

 spiracles for breathing. The pupa is found naked in an 

 oval cell with a very gibbous or horny thorax. There are 

 twelve species of Bibeo. 



DOLICHOPUS. 



A very curious fly, and one of our common garden friends, 

 in the neighbourhood of Oxford or anywhere near ponds 

 and rivers ; for it is a water-loving insect, though we find 

 it on our window-panes, and basking in the hot sun at 



