378 
not on the wing the flies can be seen sitting on the leaves of trees, 
shrubs, and all sorts of lower plants, the exuding sap of which probably 
constitutes their natural food. Neither in Florida nor at other places 
in the South did I notice them near the ocean shore, perhaps because 
they are unable to endure the constant breeze. It is further my experi- 
ence that the flies are exceedingly abundant only wherever the soil is 
sandy; they are either entirely absent or hardly noticeable in regions 
where the soil is rich and heavy. During the month of August I 
traveled through the "black land" region of the cotton States, and 
was annoyed by the flies only at two places, viz, in the suburbs of 
Columbus, Tex., where the soil is dry and light, and at Selma, Ala. 
At the latter place not a single specimen was to be seen on the right 
side of the Alabama Eiver, where the soil is black and heavy, while 
just across the river, where it is sandy, the flies were almost as bad as 
I have experienced them in the interior of Florida. Persons visiting 
or residing in Florida during winter or early sprin g are not molested, 
the flies at this season being either not numerous enough to attract 
attention, or they are not aggressive. Mr. Hubbard says that they com- 
mence to be troublesome when the weather gets really warm, or about 
the month of May. In July, with the beginning of the rainy season, 
they are out in full force, but how long they continue to torture man and 
animals has not been ascertained. 
Life Mstory. — As stated above, we know nothing thus far of the earlier 
stages of the genus Hippelates. The records* of the larval habits of 
other genera of the family Gscinidae show that the larvae of the majority 
of them, breed in stems of graminaceous plants. It is possible that 
Hippelates has the same habit, but Mr. Hubbard remarked that "if 
the insect is really an above-ground leaf-miner or stem-miner its work 
would have been noticed by him, as, on account of the great number of 
the flies, the work of the larvae must be very extensive and readily 
seen." The records further show that some other Oscinid larvae breed 
in decaying stems of plants, in worm-eaten nuts, and under the bark of 
old trees, and Mr. Maiiatt suggests "that the attractiveness of the 
moisture of the eyes and of sores would indicate that the larva is per- 
haps saprophagous in its habits, and may be found in decaying 
vegetation." 
The sandy regions of Florida, where the Hippelates flies occur most 
numerously, are for the most part covered with open pine woods, and 
their chief characteristics consist in numerous smaller or larger ponds 
and lakes which are usually surrounded with a belt of rushes and reeds. 
From this feature of the country I am inclined to believe that the Hip- 
pelates larvae will be found to live either within the stems of the living 
reeds or under or within the piles of the decaying reeds which usually 
line the shores of the lake. 
"As collected by Brauer (Die Zweifliigler d. k. Hofni. Wien, part 3, pp. 84, 85), and 
Townsend (Can. Ent., 25, 1893, p. 14). 
