78 
HOW TO COLLECT 
STRATIOMYS FURCATA. 
The larvae of Stratiomyidce have a hard, 
armourplate-like integument, and live in water 
or in humus. 
The larvae of the Horse-flies (Tahanidce) and Robber-flies (Asilidce) 
are whitish, soft-bodied grubs, which in the case of the Asilidce 
are sometimes considerably elongated ; they are carnivorous, preying 
upon beetle larvae, snails, worms, etc. The larvae of Tabanidce are 
found in earth, water, or in debris at the margin of streams ; those 
of the Asilidce in earth or in rotten wood. 
The larvae of the Humble-Bee-llies ( Bombylidce) are parasitic in 
the nests of solitary bees, or in the egg-capsules of locusts and 
grasshoppers. 
The habits of the larvae of the Syrphidce are exceedingly diversified ; 
those of the true Hover-flies (Syrphus) may be found on leaves 
infested with Aphides , upon which they feed ; those of Volucella are 
inquilines in the nests of humble-bees and wasps; the well-known 
“ Rat-tailed Maggots” (such as the larva of the Common Drone-fly, 
Eristalis tenax, L.)—so called from the protrusible, telescopic, 
terminal segments of the body, which carry the breathing-tubes—- 
live in decaying animal or vegetable matter in a liquid or semi¬ 
liquid state, in foul and stagnant water, drains, and similar places; 
the larvae of other genera (e.g. Brachypalpus, Xylota , Calliprobola) 
live in rotten trees. The larvae of Syrphidce in general (including 
all the foregoing) are more or less soft and grub-like in appearance ; 
but those belonging to the genus Microdon, which live in ants’ nests, 
have a hard, dorsally convex shell, without or with scarcely a trace 
of segmentation, and are so aberrant in appearance as to have been 
mistaken for molluscs. 
CONOrS FLAVIPES. 
The larvae of Conopulce are parasitic in the bodies 
of imagines of Ilymenoptera (and Orthoptera*). 
* Physoccphala vittata, F., was bred by Boheman floor 
a grasshopper Sphingonotus cyanopterus, Charp. 
