THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
69 
Syrphidce (continued). — Last week I 
directed attention to those of the Syr- 
phidae whose larvae are leech-like and 
prey on the Aphides. Another section of 
this numerous family — forming the ge- 
nera Eristalis and Helophilus — inhabit, 
in their larva slate, foul and stagnant 
water, where they revel and fatten on 
animal and vegetable substances in every 
stage of decay. I'o adapt them to the 
elements in which they delight, and to 
enable them to carry on more effectually 
the work that is assigned to them, these 
larvae are (urnished with a respiratory 
apparatus, telescopically formed, — thus 
capable of considerable tension. By 
means of this tube, which rises to the 
surface of the muddy and shallow bed 
they choose for their home, they receive 
the air necessary to their support, while 
they search the sediment below for their 
putrescent food! More highly favoured 
than most of their kind, the body is fur- 
nished below with seven pairs of mem- 
branous feet, furnished with claws, thus 
facilitating their movements at the bottom 
of the water. The mouth consists of an 
opening furnished with a cartilaginous 
border. Before passing into the nymph 
state the larvae leave the water, and seek 
some subterranean shelter. A viscous 
fluid they have the power of secreting 
secures them in their chosen retreat ; 
their respiratory tube ceases its functions, 
their skin hardens, dries up, and becomes 
the cocoon of the pupae, whence emerge 
the drone-flies of our woods and gardens. 
We found one of the larvae on its rambles 
a few days ago; it had evidently just left 
its watery nest in the bole of an oak, for 
on examining the hollow, which was 
filled with dead and decaying oak leaves 
and a putrid shrew-mouse, we found 
abundance of rat-tailed maggots (as they 
are popularly called), in every stage of 
growth, from the lilliputian to the fat 
and full-growu grub. — Peter Inch- 
bald, Slorllies Hall, near Huddersfield ; 
May 21, IStil. 
Cecidomyia Galeobdolontis. — I have 
recently succeeded in rearing, after seve- 
ral fruitless attempts, both the male and 
female of this singularly delicate little 
insect. Mr. W alker is scarcely accurate 
in saying that it “ lives in the thickened 
almost subterranean stalks of Galeobdolon 
luteum.” The gnat sometimes even 
pierces the lower lateral shoots that bud 
forth at the axils of the leaves, and 
thus cripples them, and causes them to 
assume the appearance of woolly galls, 
much like those of the Veronica ; but the 
yellow weaselsnout {G. luteum) is strictly 
a stolon-bearing plant, and this may 
account for the collar presenting often 
such a monstrous knot of galls as it 
does. In these the pupse pass the winter 
months, and enter on their winged ex- 
istence in the month of May. It would 
not appear that they enter the earth be- 
fore they undergo their transformation. 
In my case, I removed the plants so in- 
fested into a flower-pot, covering it over 
with a bell-glass, and imitating nature 
by the introduction of such mosses as 
crept about their roots. The first gall- 
gnat emerged on the 21st of May. 
Loew, in his Monograph, says that a 
gnat called G. strumosa has been reared 
from the pouch-like swellings of the 
uppermost leaves of the young shoots, 
but not described. Mr. Walker, in his 
laborious compilation on the Diptera, 
vol. iii., only describes the female. His 
characteristics agree pretty generally with 
the species I have reared, and conse- 
quently I am disposed to call it C. Gale- 
obdolontis, which would seem to be the 
name adopted by Winnertz. I give below 
the characteristic differences of the two 
sexes : — 
Male much smaller. Antennae with 
the joints not pedicellated as in the 
female. Wings limpid and with grey 
pubescence in both sexes, the anal fork 
exieudiiig to the inner margin, more 
deeply coloured in the male than in the 
female. Halleres darker. Abdomen pro- 
