Ninth Report of the State Entomologist 311 



What Has Been Written of Its Habits. 



Not having at hand the writings of Desvoidy, Meigen, and other 

 European entomologists who have written of this insect, I am not able 

 to state what has been narrated by them of its habits. Our own 

 literature relating to it is quite limited. 



A note of two pages on " Cluster Flies " is contained in the Proceed- 

 i^ffs of the TI. S. National 3Iuseu7n for 1883, vol. v, by W. H. Dall, 

 based on specimens of the insect received from the vicinitj^ of Geneva, 

 N. Y., where it was reported as a great nuisance in the country houses. 

 They were said to have first appeared in that locality about thirty 

 years before. In the meantime they had increased until they had 

 become a serious annoj^ance to housekeepers, as they intruded into 

 places where flies do not ordinarily take up their abode, as '' in beds, in 

 pillow-slips, under table covers, behind pictures, in wardrobes, nestled 

 in bonnets and hats, under the edge of carpets," and in many other 

 unusual and unexpected places. A window-casing remoA'ed, disclosed 

 " a solid line of them from top to bottom." Their preference seemed 

 to be for a clean, dark chamber seldom used, where they Avere wont to 

 gather in large clusters about the ceilings. It is also stated of them 

 that they sometimes suspend themselves from the cornice of a poom in 

 large clusters like swarming bees, which could be brushed bodily into a 

 vessel of boiling water: this statement, however, we can not vouch 

 for, and it needs verification. 



To Professor Dall's notice. Professor Riley has contributed about all 

 of the scientific knowledge we have of the fly, including the several 

 names under which it has been known during the last hundred 3'ears, 

 together with some additional notes of its habits. A note by Professor 

 Riley on " The Cluster Fly," in the Amer^ican Naturalist, loc. cit., may 

 also be consulted. 



Mr. B. P. Maun has recorded in Fsyc/ie, for August, 1882, its 

 occurrence in Maine, where the flies are reported as having the habit of 

 burrowing into homespun yarn and the goods of loose texture made 

 therefrom, to feed, as was supposed, on the greasy matter that remained 

 in them. They were thought, also, to cut the threads. 



Although the fly appears to have obtained a wide distribution in this 



countrv, the above are the onlv notices that I find of attention bavins: 



been drawn to its habits of congregating in houses in large companies. 



I am able to add two other instances of the kind, with the probability 



of a third. 



The Fly Observed in St. Lawrence County, N. Y. 



In a visit made to Hammond, St. Lawrence Co., during the first 



week of October, 1883, for observations on a remarkable occurrence of 



