Report of the State Entomologist. 189 



with insect pests to any material extent. The honse was surrounded 

 with a broad lawn, and in front was fine, green grass for two hundred 

 feet or more. Across the road was a hill rising to a height, perhaps, 

 of a hundred feet, extending for an eighth of a mile, and covered with 

 a growth of oak, pine, and locust trees. 



As the source of such " mass meetings " of Chlorops is unknown and 

 a matter of much interest, we quote some remarks made by Schiner, 

 in a paper entitled " Ueber massenhaftes Auftreten einer Chlorops 

 Art, Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, 1872, pp. 61-73," based on specimens 

 received by the distinguished Dipterist, which had occurred in 

 enormous numbers in a villa near Fiume on the Adriatic. These were 

 referred to the genus Ghloropisca — the same to which the Franklin 

 examples belong : in the presence of half a dozen descriptions equally 

 fitting and equally uncertain, they were given a new specific name, 

 namely, Ghloroinsca copiosa. 



The aim of these mass meetings of flies, I do not know, and do not 

 want to add a new hypothesis to those already offered. * * * The 

 known habits of several species of ChlorojDS make it probable that the 

 larva of the present one must be looked for in stems and roots of 

 GraminecB ; but our cereals seem to be out of the question, as there 

 have never been any complaints about the depredations of a species 

 like this; and owing to the immense numbers of the fly such com- 

 plaints would certainly have been forthcoming if this species attacked 

 cereals, like the larvee of some other larger species of Chlorops. 

 Those who happen to come across assemblages of this kind may find 

 an opportunity for searching the Graminece in the environs, the more 

 so as these assemblages are only local phenomena, but apt to occur in 

 the same locality for several years in succession. With some patience, 

 the flies themselves might, perhaps, be used as guides towards their 

 breeding-places: by dint of watching their 'motions and following 

 their flight, the truth might be learned. 



Another Assemblage of the Fly in Western New York. 



A second instance of an assemblage of this fly — found to be iden- 

 tical with the Franklin examples — was brought to my notice as occur- 

 ring at Alfred Centre, Allegany county, N. Y., a village in the western 

 part of the State. Dr. H. C. Coon, connected with the Alfred 

 University, communicated several specimens which he had taken 

 within his house, from the wall paper and a window, on the 18th of 

 September. Others were seen on the outside of the window. On 

 October od, " upon drawing down a sash of a window opening on a 

 covered porch at the north end of the house, the casings at the sides 

 and top were so covered with the flies that they could be scraped off 

 by handfuls." They were not found about other windows, or in 

 similar localities in neighboring houses where search was made for 



