ORDER DIPTERA: THE ASCHIZA 145 



segment is globular, conceals the basal segments, and 

 carries a long, terminal or subterminal, pubescent bristle. 

 The wings, typically, are broad ; their veins consist of two 

 thick short longitudinal veins of normal disposition, and of 

 three or four fine veins which run obliquely across the field 

 of the wing (Fig. 50). The larva is a small maggot tapering 

 anteriorly. The pupa is coarctate and boat-shaped. The 

 larvae live for the m^ost part in decaying matter, animal and 

 vegetable ; some live in ants' nests either as parasites or 

 merely as messmates. 



The maggot of one species of this family, namely, 

 Apiochceta ferruginea, is known as a sort of intestinal 

 parasite of man, and is believed by Colonel Baker, I.M.S., 

 to be able to complete its life-cycle, and to live as an adult 

 capable of reproducing its species, in the human intestine. 

 ApiochcEta ferruginea (Fig. 50) is said by Austen to be very 

 widely distributed in the tropics, having been sent to him 

 from Burma, India, West Africa, Central America, and the 

 West Indies. 



The other two families of this group— Platypezid^ and PlPUN- 

 CULIDjE — are of no medical interest. Both of them consist of small 

 flies having a wing-venation much like that of a house-fly, only with the 

 second basal and anal cells usually larger. In the Platypezida the hind- 

 legs are thickened, particularly as to the tarsal segments ; the larvae 

 live in fungi. In the Pipiinculida the head is subglobose, relatively 

 enormous, and is formed almost wholly by the eyes. 



K 



