This conspicuous species is very abundant in glades throughout the summer, flying with great rapidity, and delighting to suck honey from the numerous shrubs which are in blossom at that time of year. It is a social species, and is usually found in companies of fifteen or twenty individuals, which engage in endless dances, two insects often seizing one another on the wing and then revolving together like a wheel in rapid motion. Their manoeuvres in avoiding the strong gusty wind, so often prevalent in early summer, are also interesting; the insects play upon the wing whilst the air is quiet, but if a breeze springs up they instantly settle on the nearest bush, rising to renew their sports when it is again calm. These flies are rather variable in colour, some specimens being dark brown, {55}whilst others are more or less covered with greyish-white hairs; individuals are also often met with quite black and shining, their hirsute covering having been completely rubbed off. The female may be at once recognized by her solid, fleshy abdomen, that of the male being inflated by two great air-bladders, which cause that portion of the body to appear semi-transparent when the insect is held up to the light. The figure (2) is taken from a specimen of the latter sex. Closely allied to the present insect is _Comptosia virida_, n.s. (Fig. 3), which can be at once distinguished by its brilliant green eyes and pale grey clothing. The larva of this species is a large white maggot, rather robust, and possessing a small head. It inhabits the dense moss growing on the trunks of trees in the forest, feeding on the roots of these plants, and finally forming an oval cocoon, in which it changes into the pupa shown at Fig. 3b. The perfect insect appears in a few weeks' time, when it may be taken in similar situations to _C. bicolor_, but in much fewer numbers. Family ASILIDÆ. _Sarapogon viduus_ (Plate VI., fig. 4, 4a larva, 4b pupa). A voracious insect, frequenting all dry sand-banks and pathways throughout the summer, and destroying the numerous minute diptera found in those situations. These unfortunate victims are drilled through the thorax by their destroyer, which sucks them completely dry with its long beak-like proboscis. The larva (Fig. 4a) inhabits rotten wood, chiefly feeding upon the moist, powdery portions. It is usually somewhat sluggish, but when disturbed hops about with electrical rapidity. The head is very minute, and the elongate body consists of twenty segments, a number very unusual among larvæ, the normal number being twelve exclusive of the head. It lives for a {56}considerable time and is finally transformed into the blunt-looking pupa, drawn at Fig. 4b, without having previously constructed any cocoon. From this the perfect insect emerges in a month or six weeks' time, commencing its work of destruction as soon as its wings are hardened, which takes place within a few hours. Family STRATIOMIDÆ. _Exaireta spiniger_ (Plate VI., fig. 5).