194 Miscellaneous. 
whence Prof. Henderson has sent us four specimens upon Thala- 
mike collected in 1887 in shallow water. The parasite produces a 
very slight deformation of the carapace. The female is at once 
distinguished from that of Portunicepon portuni, Kossm., by having 
only two dorsal bosses, upon the sixth and seventh thoracic segments 
(that of the sixth segment much larger than the following one). 
The fringes of the pleal appendages are fine but unequal, and the 
pleon is less elongated than in Grapsicepon. The male is much 
degraded ; the pigment is scanty, and the lateral lobes of the 
pygidium are nearly confounded with the median portion ; the pleal 
feet are very rudimentary ; nevertheless they exist, while, according 
to Kossmann, they are entirely wanting in Portunicepon portuni. 
The ventral buttons are not very visible and much less prominent 
than in Grapsicepon. In fact, as might be expected from the 
systematic position of the host, the parasite of the Tlialamitoi espe- 
cially resembles the Cepons of Portuni, and we place it provisionally 
in the genus Portunicejwn. 
Hitherto the Bopyriana have been met with upon the Crustacea 
which live in small bays with quiet water. Grapsicepon Edivardsi 
shows us that the Sargasso Sea also famishes conditions of medium 
favourable to these animals ; moreover, we already know there 
Bopyroides latreuticola, Gissler, a parasite of Latreutes {Hippolyte) 
ensiferus, M.-Edw. But a recent discovery demonstrates that even 
the Crustacea of great depths are not exempt from the attacks of 
the Epicarides. Prof. A. Milne-Edwards has kindly sent us a 
8U[erb Bopyrian, Pleurocri/pta formosa, G. & B., which is parasitic 
uijon Ptychogaster formosus, A. M.-Edw., a splendid species of Gala- 
theid dredged at a depth of 946 metres at the Canary Islands, 
during the voyage of the ' Talisman.' We shall shortly publish a 
description of this Epicarid ; but we cannot conclude this note 
without publicly thanking MM. A. Milne-Edwards, A. Agassiz, and 
J. K. Henderson for the valuable materials of Avhich they have 
enabled us to make use. — Comptes Rendus, July 2, 1888, pp. 44- 
47. 
On Henops brunneus, Hutton. 
By W. M. Maskell, F.E.M.S.* 
About October last a resident in the Wairarapa district sent down 
to the Colonial Museum a few twigs of apple quite covered over with 
some black siibstance, amongst which were slowly crawling about 
half a dozen rather large flies ; and he desired some information on 
this, which he considered as a new " blight," stating that it occurred 
on both apple- and peach-trees in his garden. The specimens were 
referred to me ; and at first sight I thought the sooty-black coating 
to be the usual fungus accompanying scale-insects, the flies being 
unconnected with it. Closer examination, however, showed that 
* From the ' Trani-actions of the New-Zealand Institute,' vol. xx. 
Communicated bv the Author. 
Miscellaneous. 195 
the black mass was really composed of manj^ thousands of eggs ; and 
the flies were soon observed to be still laying more of these eggs on 
the twig, until in a short while it was so thickly covered with them 
as to be quite hidden. With the assistance of Mr. G. V. Hudson I 
found that the flies were undoubtedly Henops hrunneus, a species of 
Dipteron hitherto only reported (in Hutton's ' Catalogue of New- 
Zealand Dii)tera ') from Lake Wan aka. I was able to assure the 
gentlemen who sent the specimens that probably they would not do 
great harm to his trees. 
But the investigation so far showed that the knowledge of Henops 
hitherto possessed was incomplete. The available works in which it 
is mentioned were Hutton's ' Catalogue ' and Westwood's ' Classifi- 
cation of Insects.' In the former the description given is very short 
and indefinite ; in the second it is stated that Hemps and its allied 
genera are very little known and '' the larvae have not been observed." 
I placed one of the apple-twigs covered with eggs in a glass box, in 
tho hope that the larvre might possibly be hatched, and after about 
five or six weeks I found a perfect cloud of minute larvae, wriggling 
in the liveliest manner. Having thus achieved a further stage of 
knowledge of this species, and the fly itself being in some respects 
rather a curious one, I have ventured to bring forward the following 
description of the larva and the imago. Unfortunately, not being 
able to procure a supply of apple- or peach-leaves, I have not suc- 
ceeded in feeding tho larvse and obtaining pupoe. I tried various 
leaves as food for them, as well as giving them earth to burrow in, 
but they all died. 
Order DIPT ERA. 
Suborder OVIPAEA. 
Family Acrocerid^, Leach. 
{Injlatce, Latreille ; Vesiculos(s, Macquart.) 
Body short and thick ; head bent down, small, entirely occupied 
by the eyes ; thorax and abdomen large, inflated ; proboscis variable, 
sometimes long, sometimes absent. 
Genus Henops, Illiger.. 
{Offcodes, Latreille.) 
Proboscis very short, scarcely noticeable ; antennte of two short 
joints with a long style. Eyes naked, compound. Abdomen 
broader than the thorax. 
Henops hrunneus, Hutton. 
(Cat. of Dipt. 1881, p. 25.) 
Flies rather large, but squat-looking and heavy ; motions very 
slow. Thorax much elevated, the head being bent down beneath it,. 
196 Miscellaneous. 
so as not to be visible when the insect is viewed from above. Ab- 
domen round and swollen, wider than the thorax, but seeming as if 
cut oif short, the posterior extremity being turned under ; there are 
six segments in the abdomen. Colour dark brown, almost black, 
on the thorax, with short yellow hairs ; abdomen dark brown, with 
a yellow band marking each segment; head black; wings hyaline; 
halteres yellow. The tvinglets are very laige and scale-like. Eyes 
very large, compound, occupying all the upper part of the head, but 
not highly convex, Aatennee inserted in front, between the eyes ; 
two-jointed, both joints very short ; the style is very long, inflated 
near the base, narrow in the shaft and slightly dilated at the tip, 
where there are two short bristles. ProJioscia very short, almost- 
obsolete, conical, placed so much beneath the down-turned head as 
to be extremely difficult to detect. Feet long and slender ; tarsus^ 
five-jointed ; claw double, with three pulvilli. Wings with brown 
costal and subcostal veins ; discoidal cell open ; cubital cell large ; 
the postical vein appears to have a branch almost if not quite dis- 
connected. Length of the body, in the usual position, nearly -i-inch. 
The eggs of this insect are very small, sooty black, truncate-ovate j 
as stated above, they are laid iu such numbers as to cover a twig 
with a black coating. 
The [newly hatched] larva? are very minute, about -^ inch long ; 
dark grey or brown in colour ; elongated, narrow, tapering at both 
ends, with twelve distinct segments, of which the fourth from the head 
is the widest ; on each segment is a row of short fine hairs. They 
have a wriggling mode of progression forwards, and are in constant 
motion. The head is pointed and terminates in two very small 
hooks, with a pad or pulvillus. The posterior extremity is also 
acute, ending in three very minute points, with, on each side, a thin 
curved appendage. The spiracles are only two, very minute circular 
orifices, situated on the last segment but one. 
Both Mr. Hudson and I tried without success to procure the 
pupae. The larva of a fly not far removed from Henops (Clitellaria) 
is said to take more than two years before undergoing its transfor- 
mation. 
In consideration of the fact that the larvae of the whole family 
of AcroceridsD have not hitherto been known, and that the descrip- 
tions of the various genera are but fragmentary, the above account 
of Henops brunneus may be of interest. The larva would seem to be 
perhaps more similar to those of Cecidomgia than to any others of 
the order, though the perfect fly is quite different. 
On the Systematic Position of the Genus Hero. 
By M. A. Vayssiere. 
Among the Opisthohranchiate Gasteropods there are some genera 
the systematic position of which is still uncertain. Having had the 
opportunity of capturing, in the Bay of Marseilles, two or three 
individuals belonging to one of these genera, T set myself the task 
of establishing their characters.