CHLOROPIDiE. 
627 
destruction of affected plants and the clearing of any neighbouring jungle 
or grass such as might form a breeding place for the flies. Larvae 
which live in the stems of plants are naturally liable to remain unnoticed, 
and the effects due to their presence may be ascribed to some other 
cause. Some Chloropid larvse are scavengers, living on decaying vege¬ 
table matter or on plants previously burrowed or wounded by other 
insects, and Oscinis thece is recorded as having been found damaging tea 
by mining the leaves. (I. M. Notes) (fig. 412.) 
One of the Indian Chloropids has a habit of hovering in an annoy¬ 
ing manner just in front of one’s eyes, and is known as the “ eye-fly.” 
It is a minute shiny dark-coloured fly, which seems to be particularly 
fond of clinging to hanging strings and ropes. It is not unusual to see 
several hundred of them on a few inches of string hanging from a 
‘ c chick,” and with the aid of a duster or a killing-bottle it is easy to 
destroy the entire swarm ; in Europe members of an allied genus ( Ohio- 
rops) are also known occasionally to congregate in vast numbers in par¬ 
ticular chosen spots. A fly similar to this eye-fly is a serious pest in the 
Southern States of America, numbers of them getting into the eyes of 
domestic animals, and they are held in great measure responsible for 
the spread of a disease of the eyes which at times is extremely prevalent 
among children in those districts where the fly is abundant. It is said 
that in the Fiji Islands the spread of a serious eye disease is recognised 
by the European residents as being due to the agency of “ gnats ”, 
against whose attacks they protect themselves by wearing veils, but to 
what family the “ gnats ” belong is not mentioned. (L. 0. Howard.) 
Species belonging to genera allied to Elachyptera and Chlorops are 
Fig. 413- Antennae of Elachyitera (?) 
very common in India. Their antennae are often horn-like (fig. 413) 
and they are coloured in some pattern of yellow and black ; they can 
always be found by sweeping grass, in whose stems their larvae probably 
live. 
The stages of a pretty little Chloropid, belonging to a genus closely 
related to Chlorops (Merochlorops ? ), are shown on PL LXVI. The 
