844 
DIPTERA. 
interest as being closely related to an African Muscoid ( Auchmeromyia) 
whose larva has the unique habit of sucking human blood. The larva 
of Ochromyia has not yet been discovered, but the adult fly is recorded 
as having been observed to prey upon swarming termites, catching 
them on the wing, while we have more than once seen them commit 
highway robbery on ants : three or four Ochromyias will sit near a nest 
watching an ant-path along which the ants are passing to and fro : 
when one passes carrying a tender nymphal ant or pupa in its jaws an 
Ochromyia will pounce down and try to pull the nymph away, being 
generally but not always successful, and will then carry it off to a 
neighbouring twig or leaf where it can be sucked at leisure. The 
house-flies of India include the cosmopolitan Musca domestica , Linn., 
and M. corvina , Fab., and another species which is common maybe 
M. determinata, Wlk. They breed in decaying refuse of all sorts, especially 
in dung, and it will often be found that plagues of flies are due to the 
near presence of stables and cease as soon as measures are taken either 
to remove the stable refuse daily, or to protect it from flies with a 
layer of lime, by copiously sprinkling it every day with crude-oil 
emulsion, or a solution of Cyllin (Shipley), or by keeping it thoroughly 
soaked with water, or in fly-proof bins or pits. The heaps of decaying 
vegetable stuff near the bungalow, so often seen on indigo-planters’ 
estates, are one of the main causes of the plagues of flies from which 
they periodically suffer, and here Stomoxys often breeds freely. 
The student should consult Hewitt (Q. J. M. S. 1907 and 1908 
"On the structure development and bionomics of the House-fly”) 
where he will find further references to literature. 
