No. 145.] 
769 
upon the backs of the lice, its feet at this time moving with in¬ 
credible rapidity, corresponding exactly with those of a dog when 
eagerly occupied in digging open the hole of a woodchuck; at • 
the same time the lips at the end of its beak are held down be¬ 
tween its fore feet, instantly sucking dry every particle of honey 
dew which the lice, having their backs thus briskly irritated, in¬ 
continently spirt out. Thus in a moment the fly runs about over 
the backs of the whole flock, milking every one of them “ dry,” 
as a dairyman would express it, and filling himself with the de¬ 
licious sweet. But rapid as the fly is in doing this work, he 
finishes it none too soon for his own safety, for any ant that is 
near by, from a cry or some other signal given by the lice, seems 
immediately to know that a thief has broken in among the flock, 
and with his utmost speed hastens to the spot. As soon as the 
ant approaches the fly takes to his heels, as if aware he might 
come off minus a leg or a wing if he allowed the enraged ant 
to grapple him. And the ant now with his antennae gently 
strokes the backs of the aphides, as if soothing them after such 
rude treatment, and assuring them of his future watchfulness and 
protection. 
This fly pertains to the genus Tephritis, in the Ortalidan group 
of two-winged flies (Family Muscidje, Order Diptera). Though 
of the same size it is clearly a different species from the Tephritis 
4-fusciata of Macquart (Exotic Diptera, ii. 226), and also from 
his 3 -maculata, two species which inhabit our southern States. 
It may be named the Honey-dew fly, or the Honey-dew Tephritis, 
(T. melliginis.) 
It measures about 0 23 to the tip of its abdomen and 0.28 to the end of its wings. 
It is polished and shining, its head black, the orbits of the eyes margined above with 
white; the thorax is dark green and the abdomen greenish black; the under side of 
the abdomen, when distended, is of a dull reddish or yellowish brown color and 
somewhat hyaline, with a broad black stripe in the middle, which is interrupted at 
the sutures; the legs are black, the basal joint of the feet dull yellow; the wings are 
perfectly colorless.and pellucid, and are crossed upon the disk by three black bands, 
which are narrower than the intervening spaces; the middle and inner of these bands 
are oblique and shorter, not reaching the inner margin of the wing, and the inner ono 
is broadly dilated towards its anterior end, which dilation is extended along the 
margin of the wing to its base. The outer one of these three discoidal bands is con¬ 
fluent at its anterior end with a fourth band which is situated upon the anterior 
[Assembly No. 145.] 49 
