DIPTERA. 279 
The larva inhabits muddy water, privies and gutters, and is 
one of those called vers a queue de rat. It is said to be so tena- 
cious of life that no pressure can destroy it(1). 
Other Syrphide differ from the last in the exterior and closed cell 
of the posterior margin; its external side being straight or but 
slightly sinuous. The antennz are elevated at base and advance al- 
most parallel with each others; their-last joint is almost ovoid or 
nearly orbicular. The anterior projection of the head is very short. 
The abdomen is generally narrower and more elongated than in the 
preceding subgenera. The wings, in those where it is shortest, are 
generally distant. 
Syrpuus, Lat. Meig.—Scxva, Fab. 
Or Syrphus properly so called, where the abdomen is gradually 
narrowed from base to point. 
The larve feed exclusively on Aphides of all kinds, frequently 
holding them in the air, and soon exhausting them by suction. Their 
body forms a sort of elongated cone, and is very uneven, or even 
spinous. When about to become pup, they fix themselves to leaves, 
&c. with a kind of a glue. The body is shortened, and its anterior 
portion, which was previously the most slender, then becomes the 
thickest. , 
S. ribesit; Sczeva ribesii, Fab.; De Geer, Insect., VI, vi, 8. 
Somewhat smaller than the Musca vomitoria; head yellow; 
thorax bronzed, with yellow hairs; scutellum of the same co- 
lour; four yellow bands on the abéomen, the first interrupted(2). 
(1) The Helophili of Meigen, and most of his Eristales, those in which the seta 
of the antennz is simple, such as the sepulchralis, eneus, tenax, cryptarum, nemo- 
rum, arbustorum, &c. 
We might pass from the Helophili to the Callicere, Cerie, Chrysotoxa, Paragi, 
Syrphi, terminate the division of those with a nasal prominence by the Baccha, 
and begin the division of those in which that elevation is wanting, with the Ascie 
and Spheginz, Insects closely allied to the Bacche. Then would come Aphritis, 
Merodon, &c. This series would perhaps be more natural. 
(2) Lat., Ibid. See Meigen. The Chrysogaster, Meig., appears to us to differ 
but slightly from Syrphus; the wings are incumbent on the body, a character 
which also belongs to several species of the preceding subgenus. The antennz 
are almost identical in both; but in Chrysogaster the front of the females is canal- 
iculated on each side, the nasal eminence is larger, and forms a small rounded 
lump, with an abrupt descent. 
