318 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Jan 



to the quick perception of moving objects. But what makes 

 this explanation less convincing is the fact that the males also 

 possess these large faceted ommatidia, although, to be sure, in 

 fewer number. Perhaps both males and females are active at 

 twilight. Search as carefully as I might I could never find 

 but very few of the adult Blepharocera along the stream, from 

 which they were certainly issuing by thousands. Until the 

 habits of our fly is better known, then, it is hardly profitable 

 to speculate on the special use of its large faceted eyes. 



In closing I wish to call attention to three other accounts of 

 the life-history and structure of Blepharoceridai, one being a 

 paper (in Russian, which I have not seen) by Wierzeijskii ; ^ 

 another a description of the larva and pupa of Liponeura brev- 

 irostria, the specimen being found near Goslar, in the Hartz 

 Mountains, Germany ; the other a detailed account (in Portu- 

 guese) of the structure of the larva, pupa and imago of Palto- 

 gtonia torrentium, found in the province of Santa Catharina, 

 Brazil.! In this last account Dr. MuUer claims that the females 

 are dimorphic, one kind of female having divided eyes, man- 

 dibles and long tarsal claws ; and, being blood-sucking in 

 habit, while the other kind hicks the dorsal large faceted eyes 

 and mandibles, has short tareal claws and is nectar-sucking in 

 habit. Baron Osteu Sacken has not l)een able to satisfy himself 

 that Muller is correct in his claim of dimorphism, despite the 

 fact that Muller's reiterations are very emphatic. With this 

 question of dimorphism in miml I have examined all of the 

 females of lilcphatocera capituta which I have collected, twenty- 

 three in number. All these females agree in possessing dorsal 

 large faceted eyes and mandibles, and agree in all other struc- 

 tural chanuiters. There is no dimorphism among these spefji- 

 menH. Now almost all of the spe<!imen8 were taken just 

 at the moment of issuance from the ptipal cjise in different 

 part8 of the strejim at <liflerent tiiiR\s. The criticism that one 

 kind of female may have habits rendering it more ejisily dis- 

 covere<l and c^iptured than the other kind, and, hence, that 

 my few Hpetnmeim include only the ejisily taken ones, is not 

 valid in thisciiHe. I have, Inside, dissected or swrtioned many 

 pupif, and, in the cjise of all fenuiles thus examined, the 

 iimndil»l<*.s were pniiwMit It Hwms probable to nw that there is 

 no dimorphism among the femah'sof lih'phavitrvra nipiiata \m\v. 



* DewHz, H. ** Bewshreibung der Larve u. Puppe von Liponeura, 

 breviroHtHs LAw,** Berliner Ent Zeltuch., vol. xxv, 1880, pp. 01-66, 

 pi. IV. 



t .MuIliT, Fritz. "A MotauiorpIioMji <1« um InHocto Dlptero,' 

 ArchivoK do Muceu Naclonal do Klo Junelro, 1881, vol. iv, pp. 47-86 

 pi. Iv-vH. 



