CALYPTRATES. 
641 
the posterior stigmata well marked. In root-inhabiting species the larvae 
may remain in the root when pupating or may come, out and pupate 
in the soil near by. The Indian species have not been recently studied, 
and will probably be very largely increased in numbef*, as the family is 
a large one. Dr. P. Stein is regarded as the chief authority on Antho- 
myiids, and his various writings, together with Meade’s “ British 
Anthomyiidse,” should be consulted for information as to the separa¬ 
tion of the numerous genera. Van der Wulp lists about twenty Indian 
species; of these one of the commonest and most noticeable is Limno- 
phora tonitrui , Wied., a little fly of the size of a house-fly, with a light 
grey thorax marked with conspicuous blots of velvety black. The chief 
genera at present known to occur in this country are Spilogaster , 
Ophyra, Limnophora, Anthomyia, Homalomyia, Lisps, and Ccenosia. 
(Mr. Brunetti informs us that Anthomyia peshawarensis , Big., described 
in I. M. Notes as parasitic on locusts, is really Chortophila cilicrura 
Rond.) 
CALYPTRATES. 
Calyptrate Muscoids are those which possess well-developed squamae, 
have the male eyes closer together than the female, and the 1st 
posterior cell completely closed or distinctly narrowed at its outer end 
(except in some blood-sucking species). We include in this division four 
families, the Tachinidce, Sarcophagidcs, Muscidce and (Estrides. The 
Sarcophagidcs and (Estrides are comparatively small families, but the 
Tachinidcs and Muscidcs have each a very large number of closely related 
species. The fact that so many of the species are so much alike makes 
their classification (especially in the case of the Tachinidcs) extremely 
difficult, and even the numerous genera are often so close together and 
separated by such very slight characters that the student will not be able 
to distinguish them unless he makes a special study of the families. 
Their classification is still in an unsatisfactory condition, although 
much work has been done on the European and American species. In 
particular, the Indian Tachinidcs, which are evidently extremely 
numerous, have hardly been touched, and the work that has been done 
in the past will need a large amount of revision to bring it into line with 
modern classification. For these reasons, and since it must be some 
years before the Indian Calyptrates can be really well known, 1 can treat 
of them only in a superficial manner, but the student should not think 
IIL 41 
