iS93t] 5 



A SYNOPSIS OP BRITISH FSYCROt>IB^. 

 BY THE EET. A. E. EATON, M.A., P.E.S. 



Psychodidce are small Diptera, related to Ghironomidee and Culi- 

 cidce. They are mostly densely hairy, and in aspect similar to Micro- 

 Lepidoptera ; some of them, indeed, are clad with scales on parts of 

 the wings, antennae, palpi, and legs. The flies frequent situations 

 suitable to the requirements of the larvse, harbouring in herbage, on 

 shrubs and trees, or on walls, and some of them are common on 

 windows. Mud, damp sand, or moist sandy clay afford a nidus to 

 many larvae in wet or marshy situations ; others reside in proximity 

 to the sources of streamlets, or near water trickling through swamps 

 and shady quagmires ; others are partial to the banks of streams and 

 watery ditches that are not stagnant, and to roadside spouts ; a few 

 are peculiar to bogs. Jiotting leaves, rotten turnips and potatoes, and 

 other decaying substances, such as dead snails and cattle droppings, 

 supply subsistence to several species found in gardens and along 

 hedges. A few enjoy sewage matters, and resort to scullery drain- 

 traps and outdoor domestic oflices of an old-fashioned rural type. 

 FhLebotomus, a foreign genus, native of southern climates in Europe, 

 is a tiresome blood-sucker. 



The forty* British species treated of in the present synopsis have 

 been carefully studied during the last two years in ihe west of 

 England, chiefly in the county of Somerset. Much has yet to be 

 learned respecting their geographical distribution. The author is 

 indebted for information under this head to the following entomolo- 

 gists, whe entrusted him most kindly with their collections : — Mr. C. 

 W. Dale, of Glanvilles Wootton, Dorset j Mr. G. H. Verrall, of 

 Newmarket ; and (for specimens collected in Scotland) Mr. J. J. F. 

 X. King, of Glasgow. The Fsychodidce in the British Museum, named 

 and arranged by the late Mr. E. Walker, and those in the Hope 

 Museum, Oxford, in the absence of locality-records, are of little 

 interest ; and none of the collections examined (excepting, perhaps, 

 Mr. Dale's) contained indisputable type-specimens of species described 

 by English authors. Synonymy, therefore, has had to be derived from 

 descriptive literature entirely, illustrated in some measure by the 

 actual application of names in the collections examined. 



The display of markings on the wings and legs of JPsychodidcB 

 largely depends upon the direction from which light falls upon them, 



«" V iomyia, 1; Ptricoma, 31; Psi/:!ioda, 6; Trichumyia, 1; 8ycorax,l. Of these, the three 

 single species of UL'jtiii/ui, I'riclioriiiju,, and ^i/corax, live uf Psi/dtuda, and ciguc oi Jt'cricunM 

 (toial lb) nave been previously described. 



