298 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [July, ’08 
: a 
W y 
this manner. Prof. Smith, however, records at least one in- © 
stance in which it was taken at light. The moth resembles 
the color of the dead rushes so closely that it was unnoticed 
even in breeding jars for some time, and when sitting with the 
wings closed it resembles a swelling on the stem quite closely. 
During the rearing of the above-mentioned species, two spe- 
cies of Diptera were bred from its habitations that seem to 
bear a definite relation to its life-history; one, a Tachinid, 
was reared from the larva of the insect. 
This fly is figured herewith and Mr. C. H. T. Townsend, 
who examined it through the kindness of Dr. Howard, deter- 
mined it to be a species of Ceromasia (Masicera).* The fly 
was bred from two separate groups of larvae taken at an in- 
terval of a week or so apart, one lot emerging on July 20th and 
the other on the 26th. Another fly which was reared from the 
tunnels in large numbers and which was found to inhabit the 
majority of abandoned burrows, is the Ortalid fly Chaetopsis — 
aenia (Wied.), which is also the Ortalis trifasciata described 
in Say’s complete works. 
Dr. Howard states that he has reared the fly from corn- 
stalks; it has also been reared from sugar cane, and there is 
one instance on record in which it is supposed to have caused 
considerable injury to growing oats. However, I found no 
evidence to show that the fly fed on any but stalks that had 
been previously attacked by other insects. I notice two varie- 
ties of C. aenia bred from the same stems of Typha, both of 
which are spoken of by Loew in his “Monographs.” One of 
them has the legs entirely yellow, while the other has a con- 
siderable amount of black upon the femora. They seem to be 
very generally infested with small mites which are especially 
numerous on the head of the fly and which remain on the same 
even when dried in the cabinet. I have noticed specimens of 
Muscina stabulans similarly infested and have recently taken 
a very small Phorid that was literally alive with equally minute 
mites. 
* The species seems to agree in every way with Coquillett’s descrip- 
tion of Masicera myoidaea (Desv.), which has been reared from the 
larva of Hydroecia nitela, 
