

TWO NEW ETHIOPIAN LONCHAEIDAE. 251 



larvae of L. laticomis, Meig., with Ips sexdentatus. Boern. (Bostrychus stenographus, 

 Duft.) and with Ips erosus, Woll. (Bostrychus ktricis, Perr.) ; and Kleine* has found 

 puparia of L. chorea (vaginalis) with Myelophilus piniperda, L. 



Other observations have shown that the larvae of Lonchaea feed frequently on the 

 excrement of herbivorous mammals, as found in Europe for L. chorea by Scholtz 

 (1849) and by Cameron (1913) ; or even in human excrement, as found in North 

 America for L. polita by Howard (1900). When in Europe in search of parasites of 

 the horn-fly (Lyperosia irritans) to send to the Hawaiian Islands, Koebele bred 

 L. lucidiventris, Beck., from cow-dung in Germany, and sent me specimens for 

 determination. These three species (chorea, lucidiventris and polita) have been found 

 also under bark of trees, as above stated. 



From these general and not specialised habits, which from an economical stand- 

 point may be considered as indifferent, the larvae of Lonchaea have evolved in 

 different directions, but always connected with vegetable matter. The presence 

 of a well-developed, corneous ovipositor in the females of all the species alone proves 

 the capacity of the adult flies for laying their eggs in the living vegetable tissues. 

 Hence the economic importance of the genus. 



From the ground the larvae of Lonchaea enter frequently, as " followers of decay," 

 into subterranean parts of plants, which have been previously attacked by other 

 insects or fungi or other destructive agencies. This is the case with beetroots, in which 

 L. chorea causes a disease made known by the studies of Farsky and Cameron (see 

 the above-quoted papers of these authors). Larvae of other species have been 

 observed damaging the rootlets of wheat ; and Chittendenf considers L. longicornis 

 as a serious pest of truck-crops in North America. But from the subterranean parts 

 they proceed to attack the stems and other parts of various herbaceous plants (of 

 the genera Verbascum, Angelica, Carduus, Cirsium, Oncidium, etc.) as observed in 

 Europe for L. nigra, Meig. (inaequalis, Loew) and tarsata, Fall, by PerrisJ and by 

 Weyenberg (1874), and for L. orchidearum, Towns., by Tyler Townsend (1895) in 

 Jamaica. More rarely they can ascend trees, as observed by Prof. Cecconi, who 

 at Vallombrosa has bred L. viridana, Meig. , from larvae living in the cones of Abies 

 pectinata (writer's coll.). Perris has noted (1849, p. 62) that the mandibles or buccal 

 hooks of these larvae that feed on living vegetable tissues are shorter and stouter 

 than those of the species that feed on decaying matter. Some of the species with 

 these habits become very dangerous pests to cultivated plants. Thus in the West 

 Indies the "bud-maggot" is the larva of Lonchaea chalybaea, Wied.,§ which in 

 Jamaica, Trinidad and Cuba does great damage to cassava, boring into the soft 

 tissues of the growing plant, which it completely destroys. 



But a more remarkable habit of these grass-inhabiting species is that which has 

 evolved in the well-characterised group of the gall-making species, belonging to the 

 genus Dasyops, Rondani. Their larvae produce acro-cecidia of stems or of buds 

 on grasses (Cynodon and Agropyrum), and possibly on species of the allied family 



* Berl. Ent. Zeits., vii, 1907, pp. 109-113. 

 tBull. No. 82, U.S. Dept. Agric. Bur. Ent., 1911, pp. 85-93. 

 t Ann. Soe. Ent., France (2) vii, 1849, pp. 62-65, pi. iii, figs. 1-6. 

 § Urich, P. V.— Cassava Insects, Bull. Trinidad, 1915. 



Ritchie, A. H. — Report of Entomologist for year 1915-16. Ann. Rept. Jamaica Dept. 

 Agric, Kingston, 1916, pp. 31-34. 



