THE MYCETOPHILIDA. 109g 
short and stout in ¢@ and in 9. Wings brownish; veins dark ; 
second longitudinal vein ending just before fork of third longitudinal 
vein ; fourth longitudinal vein distinct. Abdomen fuscous ; halteres 
piceous ; legs short and stout ; dark. 
Found in May on and about the Bilberry ; generally abundant. 
Heeger* gives the following account of the habits of this species : 
“The females lay their eggs in decaying fungi or vegetable mould. 
The eggs are in short strings, from six to ten in a row. If the 
weather is favourable and the temperature moderate the larvz are 
excluded in eight or ten days. They shed their skin three times, 
at irregular intervals, depending on the conditions of heat and 
moisture. Before undergoing the pupa-state they form near the 
surface of the soil a little barrel-shaped case, out of which the pupa 
extricates itself in part before the exclusion of the perfect insect. 
The shedding of the skin and transformation generally take place in 
the morning ; copulation more frequently in the evening.” 
S. pulicaria, Mg. 
This has been reared from putrescent galls and, according to 
Curtis,} from rotten potatoes. It is found in the autumn about 
gardens and on windows. 
The izmago is black; thorax shining black, with abdomen dark 
blackish brown. Wings glassy ; costal nerves dark ; the remainder 
pale ; fourth longitudinal vein pale before its fork ; second longitudinal 
vein ending much before the fork of the fourth. Halteres brownish, 
with black knobs. Legs testaceous ; tarsi blackish. 
S. flavipes, Panzer. 
In this gnat the thorax is testaceous, with a small pale band on 
the humeral region. Abdomen dark above, yellowish on ventral 
surface. Palpi black and testaceous. Antennz black ; testaceous 
at the base; longer in ¢ than 9. Coxe yellowish-brown ; tarsi 
brown ; wings nearly limpid ; veins light brown ; fourth longitudinal 
vein pale before the fork ; second Jongitudinal vein extending to half 
length of body; not up to the fork of fourth. 
The fly appears in summer amongst bushes and underwood, and 
is fairly common. 
S. hyalipennis, Mg. 
This is another plentiful species found in gardens and hedges 
about the end of May and June. 
* Beitrage, etc., Sitzb. d. Wien. Ac. xi., p. 27, T. ii. 
7 Curtis, ‘‘ Farm Insects,” p. 460, 1860. 
