Objects for the Microscope. 133 



base, also three black spots on the pectus, or fore part of 

 the thorax. 



PHORA. 



All the year round the little Phora is upon our windows 

 and in our stables, when no other flies are to be seen, but 

 perhaps some eccentric little Midges, hopping diagonally 

 here and there scarcely a living thing to study ; yet we 

 shall always find a Phora running restlessly but happily to 

 and fro, with a bent body and depressed head ; the antennae 

 very short, but with a long slender arista carried back- 

 wards, the third joint quite round, the first and second very 

 small. 



The wing has no traverse veins at all ; it is of the sim- 

 plest form, strengthened at the base by the stout costal vein, 

 which ends however before half the length of the wing, and 

 is ciliated ; the mediastinal vein, also stout, ends at two- 

 thirds the length of the costal ; the cubital vein and radial 

 vein in one, and forked at the end of the costal, all the 

 other veins represented by four veinlets, often indistinct. 

 Now compare this with the Leptis wing. 



LEPTIS. 



(Tringaria.) 



A splendid preparation of a fly that is easily found and 

 captured by any rambler in woods, because it has a quiet 

 habit of sitting upon trunks of trees with its head down- 

 wards, and will allow a wine-glass to be capped over it with- 

 out any alarm. It may be useful to mention here that most 

 flies may be caught by a small tumbler, or stemless wine- 

 glass, and a handkerchief, or piece of card-board. I prefer 

 the handkerchief. The Leptis may thus be recognised : it is 

 a large fly with long pointed abdomen, tawny coloured, and 

 having three rows of black spots. The wings are spotted. 

 The thorax is that part which supports the wings and legs, 

 and in the Leptis it has three fawn-coloured stripes. The 

 legs are tawny and clothed with short black hairs. 



This fly appears in the early part of the summer, and 

 haunts meadows and hedges as well as woods. It feeds on 



