LIBRARY

7'18
COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
One of the smallest species appears to be Micromorphus albipes Zetterstedt
of Europe, 1 mm. long.
M edeterus aldrichii Wheeler is an enemy of barkbeetles, Dendroctonus spp.,
in the northwestern states.
The family contains about 2,000 species and is cosmopolitan.
B. Group CYCLORRHAPHA Brauer 1880
V. Suborder ASCHIZA Becker 1882
Family PHORIDJE HaHday 1851 (Phor/i-dre, from the Greek rjJwp, a thief;
referring to the guest species in nests of ants and termites). Humpbacked
Flies.
Minute to small, somber, somewhat bristly, very active flies with prominent
humped thorax. Head small, free. Antennre three-segmented, the apical segment
large and often covering one or the two basal segments, arista three-segmented,
subdorsal or apical. Legs moderately long and spined. Wings normal
in size, abnormal in form, vestigial or absent; veins heavy in basal half of costal
area, greatly reduced elsewhere. Abdomen eight-segmented. Larvre variable,
ll-segmcnted, pointed anteriorly and truncate posteriorly, metapneustic and
amphipneustic, with papillre arranged in bands on the segments. PUPa! enclosed
in last larval skin and with a pair of respiratory horns. The adUlts visit
flowers and foliage and buildings. The saprophagous Iarvre feed on dung, vegetable
debris, fungi, and carrion, particularly dead snails. Some live as inquilines
in the nests of termites and ants, and still others are parasitic on various arthropods.
The family is still in a state of revision and is subject to many changes.
There are perhaps 1,000 described species which are widely distributed. The
genera Aphioch