BLEPHAROCERIDiE. 
577 
most other flies the wings when first drawn out of the pupa skin are small 
and flabby, and have to be “ pumped up ” like a bicycle tyre before 
they are fit for flight, but 
with the Blepharocerids the 
wings, owing to their being 
folded in the pupa, are ready 
for instant use when with¬ 
drawn, thus saving the fly 
from being washed away help¬ 
less in the stream. 
The division of the eyes 
is a marked feature, and 
results in a type of eye curiously like that found in some male 
May-flies. Owing to lack of knowledge of the habits of the 
flies the use of these pecu¬ 
liar eyes is uncertain. The 
females are thought to be 
predaceous, and the males pro¬ 
bably suck honey from flowers, 
but of no species is the full life- 
history known. The family 
is fully treated of in Genera 
Insectorum (Ease. 56) by 
Kellogg, and we have copied 
his figure of the wing and male 
antenna of H animator hina 
bella, the only species hitherto 
recorded from Asia (Ceylon). 
Though owing to the larval 
habits it is unlikely that the 
flies occur in the plains of India, 
there is no reason why a careful search in any part of the hills where 
there are waterfalls should not reveal several new species of these 
rare and curious little insects ; I have already taken one male (genus 
Apistomyia ) sucking the flowers of Composite at Simla, and a 
female of a different species in the grass bordering a little mountain 
torrent. 
Fig. 373— Wing and antenna of hamma- 
TORHINA BELLA. CEYLON. 
(After Kellogg.) 
IIL 
37 
