Oct., '03] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 267 



size and general appearance. These proved to be another spe- 

 cies described not long ago by Mr. Melander as bulbosa. In 

 examining small flies upon a window pane I often use a mag- 

 nifying lens, and through this watch them for many minutes 

 at a time. I have in this way sometimes seen an Empid with 

 his beak inserted in another insect whose juices he was taking 

 in with apparent enjoyment. I have never seen him capture 

 the living insect, and will give him the benefit of the doubt 

 and suppose that he may have been feasting upon a victim 

 already deceased when he came upon it. 



About the first of July I always find here a pretty little 

 creature running rapidly over wet stones at the margin of 

 streams. It is a tiny fly with gray wings variegated with 

 black, and its habits are odd and interesting. Though its 

 wings are fully formed and quite capable of flight, it very 

 rarely uses them. When pursued by the collector it runs 

 swiftly like an ant on and around the stone, and will continue 

 this elusive performance for many minutes, though by spread- 

 ing its pretty wings it could at once escape capture. Only in 

 desperate extremity, as a very last resort, will it sometimes take 

 flight and rest upon another near-by stone. For a long time 

 I found them very difficult to catch. But at last I discovered 

 that by seizing the stone on which one was running and drop- 

 ping it quickly into my net I had the little fellow safe and 

 sound. Mr. Coquillett has lately described this fly as Tachy- 

 dromia varipenjiis. It is said to resemble closely in looks and 

 habits T. schzvarzii, a western species. One afternoon this 

 summer as I came by a small brook running through a meadow 

 I saw a moving cloud of insects near or on its surface. Look- 

 ing more closely I saw that they were flies, and thought they 

 must be Dolichopids, probably of the genus Hydrophorus. 

 They flew back and forth just over the water, dipping into it 

 at intervals in a wild, gay sort of dance, a water saturnalia. 

 I had never seen anything just like it before. For a long 

 time I tried vainly to capture one, but finally, after thoroughly 

 soaking my flimsy butterfly net, bringing it up again and 

 again dripping with muddy weeds and debris, I took a speci- 

 men, and found it to be a large male Empid. I caught fully 



