ecelxviii Proceedings of the Asiat. Soc. of Bengal. [Nov. 1918. 
to name about 70 British Tachinids of mine and he replied that 
he had not 70 but 700 awaiting identification, adding that he 
* could not get the hang of them at all.” Van der Wulp occupies 
20 pages of his Catalogue with the Tachinids, including Dewia 
and Sarcophaga, with their allies. 
Muscinae.—Some effort has been made to cope with the 
next great natural division of the Muscidae, the true Muscinae. 
These include the common house flies, the blue and green — 
bottles, the blow or meat flies, stable flies, or biting muscids 
(Stomoxys, Lyperosia and allies) with other species of less 
economic interest. 
Though none of the species other than the Stomoxyini 
actually bite, there are some, like Philaematomyia, provi 
‘with a sort of circular saw at the tip of its proboscis which 
would enable it to enlarge any small abrasion of the skin and 
easily draw blood, thereby transmitting parasites to the blood 
of its victim. The majority of the species breed in dung, rotting 
animal or vegetable matter and must perforce carry on their 
feet the germs of such diseases as it is possible to transmit by 
those means. The genera Musca, Calliphora, Lucilia, and Pyrel- 
lia are cases in point. Grunberg wrote recently on the Stomoxy- 
ini and I have endeavoured to define the oriental species in @ 
paper in which six new species are also described. 
Picard, Austen, Bezzi and de Meijere have each added 
species, so about 20 are now averred to be oriental though some 
seem to require corroboration Townsend is working throug 
the Indian Museum Muscinae and his first paper has just ap- 
peared.' Biological and anatomical work has been done by 
er 
several years before the war broke out but beyond his reply 
that they had safely arrived and that a cursory examination 
——— 
———— 
Paras. V (1912) ; Ind. Jour. Med. Res. I ( 1913). Brunetti, Rec, Ind. Mus. 
erm. Fuzet. XXIII, 129 (1900): Ann. Mus. Hung. VII, 546 
