XXVI. FAMILY DOUCHOPODID^. 



BY PROF. J. M. ALDRICH. 



Fig. 89. Psilopodinns sip ho, enlarged. After Lugger. 



Small flies, never exceeding 9 mm. in length, almost 

 always green in ground color, usually shining, more 

 rarely dusted with grey or brown, sometimes pure yellow 

 or almost black. As a family they are distinguished 

 from their nearest allies by the absence of the cross-vein 

 between the discal and second basal cells, these uniting 

 to form a single cell. 



Head about as wide as the thorax, usually a little 

 wider than high; the face bare, varying much in width 

 in different genera, in the females generally wider than 

 in males of the same species; front widening rapidly above 

 in nearly all genera (in Diaphorus the eyes sometimes 

 contiguous on the front), with bristles on the vertex only. 

 Posterior orbit with a row of short, erect bristles, indis- 

 tinct below in some genera. Proboscis fleshy, short, re- 

 tracted, or rarely a little protruding; palpi flat, reposing 



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