DIPTERA 313 



Family STRATiOMYiDiE 

 Exaireta spiniger, Schiner 

 Introduced from Australia, and first recorded in 1859 from Auck- 

 land {Reise der 'Novara'). Since recorded from Auckland (where it is 

 abundant),WhangareiandWellington(Hutton). Abundant in summer. 

 Mr Hudson says it was captured fairly commonly in the Welling- 

 ton Botanical Gardens in 1882, and adds " I have always assumed this 

 to be a native." Mr A. Philpott has not met with it in the south, and 

 considers that so conspicuous an insect could not escape detection. 



Family Mydaid.^ 

 Mydas macquarti, Schiner 

 First recorded from Auckland in 1859 {Reise der' Novara'). Later 

 ( 1 901) it was omitted from Hutton's list of introduced Diptera. 



Family Asilid^e 



Lampria cenea, Fabr. 



First recorded in New Zealand by Nowicki (1875 ?). Later (1901) 

 it was omitted from Hutton's list. 



Family Phorid;e 



Phara omnivora, Hudson 



This fly, which is now abundant all the year round, was originally 

 recorded from Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin by Captain 

 Hutton in 1900. It is a common meat fly, but its larva is parasitic 

 on several moths, as Melanchra composita, the New Zealand army- 

 worm or grass-caterpillar, M. mutans, M. ustistriga, Erana graminosa, 

 and other species of Noctuae. It also occurs on some Coleoptera, e.g. 

 Uloma tenebrionides. Mr Hudson was under the impression that it 

 was very destructive in bee-hives, but both Mr D. Miller and Mr 

 Philpott think this is an erroneous idea. The former suggests that 

 the larva is only a scavenger in bee-hives. The latter ventures to think 

 that the hive is not "finally ruined by the wholesale destruction of 

 the honey when the flies emerge," but by the reduction in the strength 

 of the colony caused by the parasitic larvae, the hive being at last so 

 weakened that the necessary temperatures cannot be kept up and the 

 activities of the colony cease. 



Family Syrphid^ 



Syrphus viridiceps, Weid. (Syrphus obesus, Hutton) 



An Australian fly, well established in the far north of Auckland, 

 at Parengarenga Harbour. The larvae destroy large numbers of cater- 



