XL FAMILY ORPHNEPHILID^. 



Small, obscurely reddish yellow, bare flies of peculiar 

 appearance. Head small, round ; holoptic in both sexes; 

 ocelli wanting; proboscis short; palpi longer than the 

 antennae, five-jointed, the first joint short, the second the 

 thickest; antennae situated near the oral margin, appar- 

 ently consisting of a small first joint, an oval second 

 joint and a terminal arista; the second joint and the arista 

 are, however, complex, composed of ten or eleven seg- 

 ments, the last of which terminates in a bristle. Thorax 

 strongly convex, robust, without transverse suture, some- 

 what impressed before the scutellum. Scutellum rather 

 large, obtusely three cornered; metanotum arched. Ab- 

 domen narrower than the thorax, cylindrical, composed 

 of seven segments; male genitalia thick, the basal piece 

 swollen, bladder-like; ovipositor with broad, rounded 

 lamellae. Legs simple, comparatively short ; coxae not 

 elongated; tibiae without spurs; tarsi moderately long; 

 the front pair about as long as the tibiae, the penultimate 

 joint short; claws small; empodia vestigial. Wings 



Fig. 4S. Wing of Orphnephila. 



longer than the abdomen; auxiliary vein short, termin- 

 ating in the costa ; second longitudinal vein sinuous; 



153 



