EAST AFRICAN INSECTS. 1015 



6. Orectocera mABOLusWied.(Taclunicla)). 17. iv. 22. When 

 ••walking down a steep path at 1.45 p.m., I noticed this Dipterous 

 insest fly up suddenly — the flight was short and rapid — and, 

 alighting again upon the path, it ran to and fro with jerky move- 

 ments of the abdomen till it reached a stone, upon which it rested. 

 Tiie movements were almost identical with those of (5) and its 

 allies. The fly must be very scarce here, as I have not met with 

 it before during twelve months' residence at Kilosa. 



7. Synagris carinata Sauss., va.r. albonotata Esq., $ 

 (Eumenida? : Diploptei-a). l.iv. 22. Very common, as are many 

 other similarlj'^-coloured Avasps, blue being their common livery as 

 yellow find black is for the vespids at home, llhynchium lucttiosum 

 (Jerst. is one of these ; it also enters into the colour association of 

 No. 5. 



8. Bromophila caffra Macq. (Ortalidse). 9. ii.21. On a 

 leaf beside the path, almost at the same spot as (6). I do not 

 regard this fly as a direct mimic of (7), but it must derive advan- 

 tage from adopting the livery of the wasps, which are so common. 

 On 17,iii. 17 1 took a number of these flies on flowers and herbage 

 at Morogoro, and noted at the time their slowness of movement. 

 This sluggishness was so pronounced that it was not a difficult 

 matter to catch them by l)and *. 



9. EuMENES maxillosa de G., $ (Eumenidaj). 9. iv. 22. 



10. EuMENES DYSCHYROIDES Gribodo, $ . 29. i.21. 



11. PiiYSOCEriiALA sp., $ (Conopidpe). 25, iii. 22. I think this 

 is a perfectly wonderful mimic of (9) and (10), but the semi- 

 transparent wings are more like those of other hornets taken 

 here whose abdomens, however, are normal-shaped. This fly Avas 

 resting on the blossom of a Zinnia at 5.30 p.m., and buzzed 

 loudly when caught by the fingers ; it was extremely sluggish. 

 In my diary I have just come across the following note under 

 date 3. v. 17, Morogoro. "Took a fly from a spider's web; it is 

 the verj- image of the long-waisted wasp. I was deceived by its 

 appearance at first, but the spider was serenely tuckling it." 

 Whether this is the same species I cannot say, as the fly was sent 

 home for identification and cannot be traced at the moment. 

 It is either in the Nairobi or British Museum (Nat. Hist.). 



12. PsAMMOCHARES sp. A. (Pompilidas : Possoria). l.v. 22. 

 Scarce, at least in the houses ; there is a bee here very similarly 



■coloured which I have taken several times. 



* The fly ejects yellow liquid from its mouth when handled, and was refused by 

 Dr. G. A. K. Marshall's baboons and Cercopitkecus (Trans. ICnt. Soc. Lond. 1902, 

 p. 531). Bromophila caffra is figured by Dr. Marshall on plate xxiii. fig. 27, as one 

 of a S. Rhode.sian proup of insects with " black bodies, blue wings, and red or yellow 

 . heads " (figs. 20-27). See also Dr, G. D. H. Carpenter in Proc. Ent. Soc. 1918, p. c, 

 and Trans. Ent. Soc. 1921, p. 72. 



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