NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 69 



colorous, the femora also, the knees, tibiae and tarsi pale. Mandibles 

 somewhat like an outspread hand with the last finger- joints turned 

 down and the thumb hidden. Antennae pale yellowish, the pedicel 

 above at base and the club dusky. Club somewhat enlarged ; funicle 

 joints subglobular, wider than long, increasing somewhat in size, 

 distad, but always shorter than the pedicel, which is a little longer 

 than wide. Club apparently with a minute apical fourth joint 

 (excluding this, antennge 13-jointed with two ring joints). 



Described from one female captured by sweeping in forest, 

 December 2nd, 1912 (A. P. Dodd). 



Habitat. — Nelson (Cairns), Queensland. 



Type. — The above specimen on a tag, the head and a hind 

 leg on a slide. In the Queensland Museum, Brisbane. 



The species was described with a Bausch and Lomb micro- 

 scope, |-inch objective, 1-inch optic. 



NOTES AND OBSEKVATIONS. 



Do House-Flies Hybernate? — It is commonly believed that 

 the persistence of Musca domestica from one season to another is 

 ensured by the survival of a certain number of fertilized females, 

 which pass through the winter usually in a dormant condition in 

 nooks and crannies in houses, and become the mothers of the earliest 

 broods of the follovring year. In spite, however, of the large amount 

 of attention bestowed upon the House-fly during the last few years, 

 owing to the recognition of its importance as a disease-carrier, 

 definite proof that the insect hybernates in the perfect state is still 

 wanting ; indeed, Dr. Henry Skinner, as the result of an observation 

 made by him last March at Philadelphia, U.S.A., has recently an- 

 swered the question at the head of this note by stating that : 

 " House-flies pass the winter in the pupal stage and in no other 

 way" ('Entomological News,' vol. xxiv. No. 7, July, 1913, p. 304). 

 This conclusion, it should be noted, is directly at variance with 

 results obtained in this country by both Newstead and Jepson. 



Did we possess exact knowledge of what happens to the House- 

 fly in the interval that elapses between the disappearance of the last 

 belated stragglers in November and December, and the sporadic 

 invasion of our dwellings in the following June by the earliest 

 skirmishers of the season, it is obvious that we might be able to deal 

 more effectually with an ever-recurring menace to the public health. 

 This point has not been overlooked in the investigations upon "Flies 

 as Carriers of Infection," which for several years past have been 

 carried on by the Local Government Board, under the direction of 

 Dr. S. Monckton Copeman, F.E.S., but hitherto the results have 

 been purely negative. Hybernating flies belonging to several species 

 have been found in attics and elsewhere, but upon careful exami- 

 nation it was found that these did not include a single House-fly. 

 In this matter the importance of accurate determination of species 

 is obvious, and the object of the present note is to enlist during the 



