Miscellaneous. 195 



the black mass was really composed of manj^ thousands of eggs ; and 

 the flies were soon observed to be still laying more of these eggs on 

 the twig, until in a short while it was so thickly covered with them 

 as to be quite hidden. With the assistance of Mr. G. V. Hudson I 

 found that the flies were undoubtedly Henops hrunneus, a species of 

 Dipteron hitherto only reported (in Hutton's ' Catalogue of New- 

 Zealand Dii)tera ') from Lake Wan aka. I was able to assure the 

 gentlemen who sent the specimens that probably they would not do 

 great harm to his trees. 



But the investigation so far showed that the knowledge of Henops 

 hitherto possessed was incomplete. The available works in which it 

 is mentioned were Hutton's ' Catalogue ' and Westwood's ' Classifi- 

 cation of Insects.' In the former the description given is very short 

 and indefinite ; in the second it is stated that Hemps and its allied 

 genera are very little known and '' the larvae have not been observed." 

 I placed one of the apple-twigs covered with eggs in a glass box, in 

 tho hope that the larvre might possibly be hatched, and after about 

 five or six weeks I found a perfect cloud of minute larvae, wriggling 

 in the liveliest manner. Having thus achieved a further stage of 

 knowledge of this species, and the fly itself being in some respects 

 rather a curious one, I have ventured to bring forward the following 

 description of the larva and the imago. Unfortunately, not being 

 able to procure a supply of apple- or peach-leaves, I have not suc- 

 ceeded in feeding tho larvse and obtaining pupoe. I tried various 

 leaves as food for them, as well as giving them earth to burrow in, 

 but they all died. 



Order DIPT ERA. 



Suborder OVIPAEA. 



Family Acrocerid^, Leach. 



{Injlatce, Latreille ; Vesiculos(s, Macquart.) 



Body short and thick ; head bent down, small, entirely occupied 

 by the eyes ; thorax and abdomen large, inflated ; proboscis variable, 

 sometimes long, sometimes absent. 



Genus Henops, Illiger.. 



{Offcodes, Latreille.) 



Proboscis very short, scarcely noticeable ; antennte of two short 

 joints with a long style. Eyes naked, compound. Abdomen 

 broader than the thorax. 



Henops hrunneus, Hutton. 



(Cat. of Dipt. 1881, p. 25.) 



Flies rather large, but squat-looking and heavy ; motions very 

 slow. Thorax much elevated, the head being bent down beneath it,. 



