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.]