surface of the abdomen, and thighs black; with the face, antennae,
legs, wings and rest of the abdomen except two indistinct narrow bars,
bright reddish yellow. It measures over ¾ of an inch in length, and
is of the usual elongate robust form with long clubbed antennae and
thickened legs. My specimens come from Southern Queensland.
[Illustration: Plate XXVIII.--DIPTERA.
Family MUSCIDAE.
1. _Chaetogaster violacea_ (Macq.).
Family TABANIDAE.
2. _Pangonia guttata_ (Donov.).
6. _Pangonia auriflus_ (Donov.).
14. _Tabanus abstersus_ (Walk.).
7. _Lamprogaster laeta_ (Guérin).
Family ASILIDAE.
3. _Asilis grandis_ (Macq.).
8. _Craspedia coriaria_ (Wied.).
12. _Phellus glaucus_ (Walk.).
13. _Blepharotes splendissima_ (Wied.).
Family DIOPSIDAE.
4. _Zygotricha sp._
Family BOMBYLIDAE.
5. _Comptosia albo-fasciata_ (Thomp.).
11. _Trichophthalma eques_ (Sch.).
Family DEXIIDAE.
9. _Rutilia decora_ (Guérin).
10. _Amphibolia fulvipes_ (Guérin).
(Original photo. Burton.)]
[Illustration: _Plate XXVIII.--DIPTERA._]
Family 11. Robber-flies.
ASILIDAE.
This group is well represented in Australia by some very large handsome
robber-flies which attack and kill many insects larger than themselves,
transfixing them with their horny bayonet-like proboscis. The
large projecting eyes forming the greater part of the head are well
separated from the thorax; the three jointed antennae stand out at
an angle from each other; the legs are long, stout, and covered with
stiff hairs well adapted for holding their prey; they have more or
less clouded wings; and a slender, rather cylindrical body tapers to
a blunt tip in the female, but in the male terminates in a pair of
pincer-like processes. It is an extensive family, over 3,000 species
being described from all parts of the world; they are very numerous in
America, where one is a very serious pest to honey bees. Their larvae
live in the ground and are predaceous, feeding upon the larvae of other
insects, particularly those of beetles.
The members of the Genus _Dasypogon_ are small delicate flies that
cling to grass stalks, and are easily taken with a sweeping net; they
have the typical form of the family, and their slender bodies taper
to a point. _Laphria diversipes_ is a common insect about Sydney
often taken on fences; it is slightly over ½ an inch in length; its
general colour is black, with stout reddish brown legs variegated with
black. The head is clothed with stiff grey hairs, the upper surface
mottled with golden pubescence, and scattered black hairs. _Laphria
rufifemorata_ is a somewhat large insect from Queensland, with the
abdomen of a deep metallic blue. _Leptogaster geniculatus_ is a
remarkably slender bodied fly, about the same length, found about the
Blue Mountains N.S.W. The head is short but wide across; the thorax
is oval, and the linear abdomen swells out slightly to the apex; the
legs are long and slender, the hind pair with the thighs swollen in the
centre. The general colour is shining black with the legs marked with
white.
The typical Genus _Asilis_ contains some handsome flies generally
met with in open forest country: _Asilis inglorius_, over 1 inch in
length, has large black eyes; the front of the head is clothed with
grey bristles; the thorax is olive green, marbled with grey pubescence,
thickest on the ventral surface; the legs are red, the tarsi black; and
the wings are clouded with yellow; the abdomen is much elongated to the
pointed tip, reddish brown, the first 3 segments thickly clothed with
long, pale, golden, downy hairs, and with the terminal segments covered
with very short reddish brown hairs. _A. plicatus_ is slightly larger,
of a general greyish brown tint, with pale reddish brown markings on
the thorax; the legs are darker brown; the abdomen is lightly clothed
with fine scattered grey hairs. _A. fulvitarsus_ is a much smaller
species of a somewhat uniform buff tint, inclined to a golden tint on
the lower portion of the abdomen; the face is clothed with grey and
buff hairs, and the wings are light brown.
_Blepharotes splendidissma_ is a very handsome fly with the abdomen
flattened, broad, and almost heart shaped; it measures nearly 1½ inches
in length, and 2½ across the outspread wings. It is of a general black
colour with the abdomen of a shining bronzy green tint; the face is
clothed with yellow bristles; the thorax has grey pubescence on the
sides, and the outer margins and tip of abdomen are fringed with tufts
of yellow and black downy hairs. I have frequently captured it flying
about in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, in the early summer. _Phellus
glaucus_ is a very curious fly found in the interior of Western
Australia; it measures nearly 2 inches from the front of the head to
the tip of the wings; a great tuft of bright yellow hairs stand out
in front of the head; it is thickly clothed on the under-surface of
the head with pale yellow hairs; the legs are very stout and hairy,
and clothed with black down marked with white and large yellow tufts
on the hind legs. The abdomen is thickened, elongated and broadly
rounded to the tip, of a uniform deep metallic blue tint, but so
thickly clothed with short black down that its rich colour is somewhat
obscured. _Craspedia coriaria_ is one of our largest robber-flies,
widely distributed all over the interior of the continent; its mouth
is produced into a stout pointed awl-like process, with which it can
pierce the integument of the stoutest insect, and it can be often seen
flying along with its beak buried in the back of a large cockchafer
beetle (_Anoplognathus_), and with its large legs clasping its victim
as it sucks up its blood. Its general colour is black, with the broad,
flattened, more elongate abdomen thickly clothed with short brick-red
hairs; the legs and under surface are very hairy, with tufts of stiff
black hairs fringing the outer edges of the abdominal segments. The
wings are opaque and almost black, with an expanse of about 3 inches.
_Saropogon princeps_, described by Macquart, has a large reddish brown
wasp-like form that at first sight might be easily mistaken for a
Pompilid wasp. It measures 1½ inches in length, with a wing expanse
of about 3 inches. The head, under-surface, centre of the thorax
above, the basal segment, and two bands on the abdomen are black; the
rest is dull red, with the hind margin of the wings hyaline. I have a
specimen from Mittagong N.S. Wales. _Brachyrhopala ruficornis_ comes
from Mackay, Queensland, and has a very wasp-like appearance both in
the colouration and shape of the body. It is under ½ an inch in length
with the typical robber-fly head and spiny legs, but the abdomen is
contracted into a cylindrical waist behind the thorax, rounded in the
centre, and tapered to the tip. The head and thorax are almost black;
the hind margin of the latter and legs are dull red; the abdomen is
dull yellow with the basal segments marked with blackish brown, forming
two almost confluent bands round the broad centre.
Family 12. False Robber-flies.
APIOCERIDAE.
These flies are of medium size not unlike _Muscidae_, with large
elongated bodies, short antennae, and clear wings. This is a small
family containing two genera, the species of which are peculiar to
North America, Chili, and Australia.
_Apiocera bigotii_, described by Macquart, is about ¾ of an inch in
length; it has a short head not so wide as the thorax, with a long
projecting proboscis; the elongate broadly rounded thorax is truncated
behind; the abdomen is broadest in front, rounded, and tapers to
the tip, which terminates in a tuft of fine spines. The wings are
somewhat iridescent with reddish veins; the general colour of the fly
is a dull brown, with white hairs and silvery pubescence clothing the
hind portion of the head and under-surface of the thorax, and also
mottling the dorsal surface of the body with grey. Some specimens in
my possession come from the Shoalhaven district. _Apiocera asilica_
described by Westwood is a larger much darker insect, with black hairs
on the upper surface and grey on the under surface; it ranges from
Queensland to the Blue Mountains N.S.W.
Family 13. Big-eyed Flies.
PIPUNCULIDAE.
These are tiny little creatures with very large heads consisting almost
entirely of two great hemispherical eyes. The short antenna terminates
in a bristle.
About 80 species had been described, chiefly from Europe, until Perkins
published the descriptions of 26 species from Australia (Leaf Hoppers
and their natural enemies Pt. iv. Pipunculidae) Hawaii 1905.
They are remarkable for their habits in the larval state, being
parasitic upon the larvae and pupae of frog-hoppers, chiefly Jassidae,
particularly those Homoptera that have the tip of the abdomen clothed
with waxy filaments. When full grown the dipterous larvae leave their
host and bury themselves in the soil, where they pupate. Mr. Koebele
allowed me to examine the collection he made of these little flies
before they were described by Mr. Perkins. Many of these he reared from
infested frog-hoppers in Queensland when studying sugar-cane pests.
_Pipunculus helluo_ was observed swarming round the larvae of
_Siphanta_, which were abundant on fig trees near Bundaberg Queensland;
this species was also taken by Koebele near Sydney. _P. cinerascens_
is remarkable in the larval form, as it does not fall to the ground
and pupate in the soil, but forms its puparium upon the surface of the
living leaves in the open. _P. cruciator_ comes from the district of
Cairns, N. Queensland.
Family 14. Hover Flies.
SYRPHIDAE.
Several species are well known and common in gardens, where they
are popularly known under the name of “Bee” or “Hover Flies” from a
way they have of poising, apparently motionless, over flowers and
aphid-infested bushes, for the movement of their wings is so rapid as
scarcely to be detected. The perfect flies, which among the carnivorous
species have slender bodies more or less barred or banded with yellow,
lay their eggs upon aphis-infested plants; the young larvae emerging
from the white eggs feed exclusively upon aphids and plant lice; the
full-grown larva is legless, very elongate in form, and has great
powers for extending and contracting its abdominal segments, so that
the body, from a rounded mass, can extend into a long and slender form.
The full-grown larva pupates in an oval hard chrysalid which usually
falls to the ground.
The typical Genus _Syrphus_ is well represented in Australia by
several fine species, all of which are aphid eaters, and fly about
in the bright sunshine but shelter among the foliage at other times;
whenever aphis appear the syrphid flies soon follow, and I have seen
them round the aphid-infested briar bushes in countless thousands.
_Syrphus pusillus_, figured in the Agricultural Gazette N.S.W. 1904
under the name of _Syrphus viridiceps_, is our commonest species found
upon aphis-infested rose bushes, orchard trees, and wheat fields. It
measures about ⅓ of an inch in length; has large reddish eyes, yellow
face, and dull metallic green thorax with yellow scutellum; the darker
abdomen is banded with three interrupted transverse yellow bands, and
smaller marks on the apical segments. _S. viridiceps_ is a more slender
form, with a green face; the whole of the thorax is shining lead
colour, with fine yellow bands on the abdomen; the legs are dark, and
the whole fly is lightly clothed with fine hairs. Both these species
may be taken on the same bush, and both have a very wide range over
Australia.
[Illustration: =Fig. 146.=--_Syrphus viridiceps_
(Macquart).
A common Hover-fly that destroys rose and peach aphis.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
The Drone or Bee Fly, _Eristalis tenax_, is another common garden
fly with a very wide range, and is an introduced European species.
It measures over ½ an inch in length and is broad in proportion; the
head and thorax are clothed with yellowish brown down, and the smooth
shining abdomen is mottled with black and brown. The larvae are dirty
white maggots with slender rat-tails at the tip of the body, and they
live in all kinds of rotten or semi-liquid refuse.
_Helophilus bengalensis_ is a smaller, robust fly with rounded eyes;
the thorax is richly barred with parallel grey lines on the dorsal
surface; and there are two large lunate yellow spots at the basal
portion of the abdomen. The lower part of the abdomen tapers to a
rounded tip and is clothed with yellow down. This fly was originally
described from Bengal by Wiedemann; Schiner has reported it from
Batavia; my specimens come from Queensland. _H. griseus_ was described
and its life history given in my “Entomology of the Grass-trees”
(Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1896) under the name of _Orthoprosopa nigra_.
The larvae, elongate in form, with a short anal tubular tail, swarm
in great numbers between the outer shell and the caudex of the dead
rotting trunk of the grass-trees among the slime and water. They pupate
in the damp earth in captivity, forming a light brown oval case with
the remains of the larval tail shortened and retracted. This handsome
black fly, over ½ an inch in length, has the face and antennae bright
yellow; the dorsal surface clothed with fine black pubescence; the
scutellum smooth and shining; the sides fringed with scattered grey
hairs; and the wings clouded. There is a second species found in
similar situations; the larvae have the typical slender rat-tails, and
when they pupate transform the tail into a curved tubular process at
the extremity of the chrysalis.
[Illustration: =Fig. 147.=--_Eristalis tenax_
(Linn.).
The Drone or Bee-fly; usually found upon flowers.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
_Sphiximorpha australis_, from Southern Queensland, is a very curious
broad thickset black and yellow fly, with spatulate tipped antennae
standing out in front of the two large eyes; the head is slightly
larger than the thorax, which is stout and thickened; and the broad
abdomen is rounded at the extremity. The general colour is black, with
the face, three spots on the sides of the thorax, scutellum, apical
portion of legs, and two bands on the abdomen rich yellow. The wings
are clear, except a dark stripe along the front margin. This curious
fly has a striking resemblance to some of the yellow banded mud-nest
wasps (_Odynerus_ and _Alastor_), but the reason for their bright
colouration and abnormal shape is at present unknown.
Family 15. Wasp-flies.
CONOPIDAE.
These are handsome flies of moderate size, many of which are very
wasp-like in the shape of the abdomen and in general colouration; they
have the proboscis prolonged but usually drawn up and hidden; the
3-jointed antennae inserted in front of the head are close together at
the base, with the first joint very short. Comstock says that the larva
of _Conops_ is a soft whitish 11-jointed flask-shaped grub, with
a long neck and mouth armed with lips and hooks (mandibles) and two
lateral elevated plates supporting the two spiracles. It was found by
Lachat and Audouin living in the body of a _Bombus_. Most of the
members of this family are found as parasites upon different bees and
wasps; the flies deposit their eggs upon the perfect insects; the larva
bores into the abdomen, feeds upon the contents, and finally pupates in
the shell of the body. They are considered by most writers to be allied
to the _Syrphidae_.
This is a small family in regard to numbers of species, but they
are widely distributed: Van der Wulp lists 14 species of the Genus
_Conops_ from South Asia, including the Malay Archipelago (Cat.
Described Diptera 1896), and others have since been described.
_Conops pica_, described by Macquart from Australia, is found in the
Mittagong district, N.S.W. It is slightly over ¼ of an inch in length;
has large lance-tipped antennae standing out in front; a large head;
the abdomen very slender at the base swelling out to a broadly rounded
tip, giving it a striking resemblance to the small “mud-nest wasps.”
This resemblance is further borne out by its general dark brown colour
marked and banded with yellow, which upon the abdomen forms two broad
bands, a spot on the sides, and a large rounded blotch on the extreme
tip; the legs are banded, and the wings are striped in front with brown.
Family 16. Fruit Flies, Leaf Mining Flies, &c.
MUSCIDAE ACALYPTRATA.
Under this heading Sharp places a large division of closely related
flies comprising 29 families, which he treats in a very brief manner;
we have a large number of interesting species in some of these families
that are worthy of notice, for some of them are very serious pests
to the gardener and orchardist. Sharp says: “Taken collectively, they
may be defined as small flies with 3-jointed antennae (frequently
looking as if only 2-jointed) bearing a bristle that is not terminally
placed; frequently either destitute of squamae or hairy, these
imperfectly developed so as not to cover the halteres; and possessing
a comparatively simple system of neuration, the chief nervures being
straight, so that consequently few cells are formed.”
The DIOPSIDAE comprise in the typical Genus _Diopsis_ some very curious
looking flies, rather slender in form, with narrow wings, and the sides
of the head produced into an elongate stalk, at the tip of which is
placed the rounded eye, reminding one of the stalk-eyed crabs. Westwood
monographed this genus in the Transactions of the Linnean Society 1835,
where he figured and described 21 species from Africa, India and Java.
I have two very fine species from North Queensland, belonging to the
Genus _Zygotricha_, and a number of allied forms placed in the Genus
_Achias_ by Van der Wulp (Catalogue of the Described Diptera from South
Asia 1896) recorded from New Guinea. The Stalk-eyed fly, _Zygotricha
sp._, measures nearly ½ an inch in length, with the eyes measuring over
¼ of an inch from tip to tip; its general colour is yellowish brown,
the face bright yellow; eyes black; thorax finely striped with grey;
wings mottled; the curious angulated abdomen shining with metallic
tints, and tipped with stout hairs.
The cosmopolitan “Skipper” in cheese, is the larva of _Piophila casei_;
it pupates in a slender dark chrysalid; the small slender dark fly
swarms round over-ripe cheese, fat, and other dried foods.
The little “Fruit Flies” belonging to the DROSOPHILIDAE, sometimes
also known as “wine flies” from their habit of swarming round the
freshly-filled wine casks, lay their eggs in decaying vegetable matter;
they are often attracted to over-ripe fruit, and by their presence
sometimes cause it to decay; they are common all over the world. The
maggots sometimes found among pickles in vinegar and brine belong to
flies of this group. _Drosophila obscura_, a tiny light brown fly with
a dark coloured head, breeds in damaged tomatoes.
[Illustration: =Fig. 148.=--_Dacus (Tephritis)
tryoni_ (Froggatt). The Queensland Fruit Fly.
1. Showing the jaws of the larva; 2. adult fly enlarged;
3. larva; 4. chrysalid; 5. tip of the abdomen showing the
breathing orifices; 6. fly natural size.]
The TRYPETIDAE comprise the true “fruit flies,” many of them very
handsome little creatures; some of them form regular galls in the twigs
of plants; others with their needle-like ovipositors puncture the
ripening fruit, depositing their eggs beneath the skin; the maggots
cause the fruit to rot, often before it can be gathered, and thus
do a great deal of damage in Australian orchards. The Queensland
Fruit-fly, _Dacus (Tephritis) tryoni_, ranges from Queensland (where
it probably originally infested native bush fruits) into N.S. Wales,
and is now a serious orchard pest in both States. It is a dull brown
insect marked with yellow, about the size of a large house fly, with a
rather wasp-shaped body, and large transparent wings. I have described
several other allied species coming into Australia from the Islands in
damaged fruit, “Notes on Fruit-maggot Flies with Descriptions of New
Species” (Agr. Gazette N.S. Wales 1899). _Dacus (Tephritis) psidii_
was bred out of guavas imported from New Caledonia; it is about ¼ of
an inch in length; is dull yellow, with the thorax distinctly striped,
and the abdomen black; the transparent wings are thickly mottled with
brown. Tryon says that it is a common fruit-fly pest in Queensland,
damaging bananas and other fruits. _Trypeta musae_ was obtained from
bananas brought from the New Hebrides: it is a slightly larger fly,
with the head and thorax dull yellow; it has no distinct dorsal stripe
on the thorax, and the wings are very thickly mottled. _T. bicolor_ is
a larger native species with reddish brown head and thorax; with black
body; with beautifully mottled black wings having the base and sides
unclouded. I have taken it on the trunks of wattle trees near Bathurst,
N.S. Wales. The “Mediterranean Fruit Fly,” _Ceratitis (Halterophora)
capitata_, first recorded from oranges brought from the Azores to
London, was described by Macleay in 1826; it has a wide range, and was
introduced into New South Wales some years ago; it is now one of the
most serious pests that orchardists have to fight. It is a smaller more
thickset fly than the Queensland pest, with the thorax dark metallic
brown, and the wings richly variegated. The male is remarkable in
having a pair of spatulate hairs, like a second pair of antennae,
springing out in front between the eyes. _Trypeta poenia_ is a tiny
little fly with a grey pubescence over the thorax and abdomen; the
thorax is finely mottled, and the delicate wings are very finely but
thickly marked with dark brown; I have taken this species when beating
the low scrub in the western country round Condobolin, N.S. Wales.
_Lonchaea splendida_ is a very brilliant metallic green fly with pale
smoky wings; it is smaller than a house fly, with a much more elongated
body; its larvae infest decaying tomatoes, potatoes, egg-fruit and
other solanums; it has a wide range from the Pacific Islands and New
Zealand, over Australia.
The family ORTALIDAE is represented here by a very handsome species,
_Ortalis coerulea_; it is about the size of a house fly, with deep
metallic blue thorax and banded black abdomen; the transparent wing is
clouded with black at the base and the tip, and has a black V-shaped
band in the centre. It is very common in summer usually resting on the
foliage of the grass-trees, and can be easily captured with a net.
_Lamprogaster laeta_ is another fine species, with a wide range from
Victoria to Queensland. It measures nearly ½ an inch from the front of
the head to the tip of the body; the large semitransparent wings are
blotched along the front with black. The dorsal surface and curious
angular abdomen are deep metallic blue; the legs and under-surface
reddish brown. I have usually found it on the highlands, and it is
common on the Blue Mountains N.S.W. in the summer months.
The AGROMYZIDAE are small yellow flies, sometimes marked with green;
they puncture the tissue of plants and cause excrescences and galls
upon the foliage and flower buds. One tiny species, _Agromyza sp._,
attacks the midrib of the leaves of the “Blood-wood” (_Eucalyptus
corymbosa_), common about Sydney; producing soft yellow spongy
excrescences aborting all the young foliage. _A. phaseoli_ is a great
pest to the growers of french beans in the Gosford district N.S.W.;
the fly inserts her eggs in the stem of the young plant just above the
surface of the ground. It is a tiny black fly, with bluish tints on the
body. It was described by Coquillett (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1899) from
specimens I sent to him for identification.
[Illustration: =Fig. 149.=--_Agromyza phaseoli_
(Coquillett).
The French-bean fly, the larva of which feeds on the stems.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
[Illustration: =Fig. 150.=--_Phytomyza affinis_
(Fallen).
An introduced Leaf-mining fly, and a common garden pest.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]