376 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST, SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIII. 
been observed to jerk its eggs against a sand bank, from the distance of 
an inch or more yet strangely enough not so as to drop them actually 
into the burrow of any bee.* The larvae are of Hymenopterous 
aspect but there is no mistaking the Dipterous head. The pupa 
has most remarkable cephalic spines which act as digging organs. 
There are five prongs on the ventral surface of the head which have 
been likened to the tusks of a walrus. No part of the imago is form- 
ed in these spines and they serve, when the time for emergence 
comes, to tear down the clay stoppimg with which the bees close 
their burrows. Without such tools for digging a way out of the earth, 
the parasitic larva would have lived in vain. 
This family is represented by a hundred described species in India. 
Anthrax Scop., Exoprosopa Macq. and Hyperalonia Rond. are the 
largest genera besides those mentioned already. In many cases the 
life-history is unknown. Geron argentifrons Brun. is parasitic on 
caterpillars found under the bark of the Sissoo-tree (Dalbergia sissoo). 
The pupa of a species of Systropus Wied. has been found inside the 
cocoons of a moth. At one end of the moth’s cocoon is a circular 
piece which is easily removed and allows the perfect insect to escape. 
The pupal Systropus has a strong frontal projection apparently used 
for the purpose of forcing off this lid. When one considers the diffi- 
culties which meet the emerging Bombyliid fly, especially when 
masonry or clay-stopping has to be penetrated, one cannot but wonder 
what percentage fail to get out and to perform their reproductive 
work, 
Cyrtide. This is quite a small family of rather small flies with 
curious habits and often an unusual appearance. They are some- 
times called Acroceride but the former name is used by the best 
authorities whose judgment I follow. The range of the family is 
world-wide but only some 200 species are named and of these 10 have 
been collected in India, Oncodes, Latr. being the most important 
genus in that region.* The family is allied to the Bombyliide; but 
whereas the latter are parasitic on insect larvae, all the Cyrtide, 
whose metamorphoses and life-histories are known, have larvae 
which are parasitic in the abdomens or in the egg-cocoons of spiders. 
The perfect insects are like caricatures of Bombylius with a head that 
seems to consist of nothing but enormous globular eyes, a humped 
thorax and a rounded, sometimes actually globular, abdomen. The 
mouth-parts are so varied that one can draw no conclusion as to the 
food that is taken if any. In Acrocera, there is a long slender pro- 
boscis but in Oncodes, the proboscis is apparently absent and there 
is no orifice into the mouth so that all the feeding must be done during 
* Chapman, ‘‘On the economy of Bombylius.” Ent. Mo. Mag ((1878) Vol. 14, 
p. 196. 
For the Indian genera and species see “‘ Fauna of British India.” Diptera 
Brachycera by E. Brunnetti, Vol 1, which appeared in May 1920. 
