OP NEW ENGLAND. 125 



blance to Dipodium apiarium of Bosc, and is like several 

 dipterous larvas described by Reaumur (Memoires, tomes 

 iv arid v.) M. Latreille refers it to Conops rufipes of 

 which he has found four individuals in a box in which he 

 had placed some Bombus terrestris Fabr." 



" This larva, then, passes its first three stages, lodged 

 directly within another insect, there living upon the fats, 

 and receiving like most dipterous larvse, through its pos- 

 terior openings, an abundant supply of air, that another 

 being inspires for it. Already has M. Dumeril surmised, 

 that from the curvature of its abdomen, the Conops must 

 lay its eggs within the body of some other insect." 



The Iarva3 are represented by the authors as being flask- 

 shaped, convex above, flattened beneath, with the anterior 

 portion of the body elongated and very slender; while 

 upon the obtuse anal extremity are placed the crescentic 

 respiratory organs. 



We have nothing new to communicate respecting the 

 habits of this genus, but merely to note the occurrence of 

 a species which is parasitic either upon Bombus vagans 

 Smith, or B.fervi-dus Fabr. Unfortunately the specimen 

 died while issuing from the body of the bee so that the 

 wings were not expanded and the colors were not devel- 

 oped ; and since a colony of each of the two species above 

 mentioned were pinned in the box, it is uncertain upon 

 which species the Conops was a parasite. 



In the dilapidated specimen, which Baron Osten Sacken 

 has referred to the genus Conops after reading my descrip- 

 tion, the large eyes do not meet on the vertex, but their 

 opposite edges are straight and parallel, leaving the front 

 of the head between them of even width above and below, 

 and as w r ide as the breadth of either of the eyes ; the 

 front is deeply excavated for the reception of the antennas, 

 on each side of a triangular prominence ; the antennas 

 are apparently three-jointed ; the first very long, square, 

 and truncated at the tip ; the second is a third shorter 

 than the basal joint, but broader and conical, and contin- 

 uous with the slender, minute, acute third joint ; the pro- 

 boscis is very long, reaching nearly to the tip of the abdo- 

 men and clavate at the extremity. The abdomen is 

 apparently somewhat shrivelled, and i? cylindrical, the 



