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OCCURRENCE OF TWO EARLY AND RARE 
DIPTERA AT GRANGE. 
R. H. MEADE, 
Membre de la Société Entomologique de France; Bradford, Yorkshire. 
Wuite at Grange-over-Sands during the first week of last April, 
when the weather was bright but cold, I noticed several small flies 
flitting about and settling upon the rocky paths, in the woods above 
Hazelwood. I thought at first that they were probably only little 
dung flies (Borborus equinus), which are usually very common in the 
early spring, but upon capturing a few of them I found that they 
were something very different. 
They were of two distinct species belonging to separate families. 
One was a little so-called wasp fly (one of the Syrphid@), of which 
I had never before seen an indigenous example, and which I believe 
has not been previously recorded as British. This little shining 
black species, about three lines in length, has the male characterised 
by the forehead being bearded with long black hairs, whence its 
name Melanostoma barbifrons F\n. The abdomen is marked by 
four small oblong yellowish white spots. I captured four specimens, 
two males and two females ; the latter were black and very glabrous, 
without the hairy forehead, and with the abdominal spots absent or 
very indistinct. The M. nitulida Ztt. has been reputed to be the 
female of this species, but it decidedly differs from those which 
I found. 
The other fly, which was rather smaller and more numerous, was 
a little Muscid named Phorbia muscaria F. It is not common, and 
I never found it before. Mr. Verrall gave me several specimens 
some years ago, and I find from the dates upon the labels that they 
were all likewise captured early in April; so this species must be 
considered as an early spring one. 
Nothing is known, I believe, of the economy of either of these 
Diptera, but it would be interesting to know upon what their larve 
feed. 
The life-history of many Diptera as well as of many other insects 
is still involved in mystery, and there is here a wide field of interest 
for naturalists who possess time and inclination for prying into the 
secrets of nature. 
BRADFORD, June 10th, 1895. ae 
Naturalist, 
