222 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Oban, on the 2/th August this year. So far as I can 

 ascertain this species has never before been recorded as a 

 native of Britain, and I believe that the other two British 

 members of the genus, viz. 0. atra, Fab., and O. pusilla, Meig., 

 are both rare. The present species may be easily recognised 

 by the peculiar light ashy-gray colour of the abdomen, along 

 which runs a broad, more or less interrupted dorsal blackish 

 stripe which extends from the base to at least the apex of 

 the fourth segment. While this stripe is somewhat shining, 

 the rest of the abdomen (except the extreme tip and geni- 

 talia) is quite dull. These specimens measure 6^ millimetres 

 in length, a size which far exceeds that of either of the other 

 species. The following additional characters may be useful : 

 antennae black, the second joint below and the basal half of 

 the third joint reddish-yellow, front reddish-yellow in front, 

 blackish-brown in the upper half, eye-margins and epistome 

 silvery, ground-colour of the latter pale yellow ; thorax 

 blackish and somewhat shining, covered with a slight grayish 

 tomentum which leaves three fairly distinct longitudinal 

 lines ; wings slightly tinged with brownish -yellow in the 

 apical half, but with both the veins and cells decidedly 

 yellow at the base ; legs yellow with the upper sides of the 

 front and middle femora, the tips of the hind femora, the 

 apical halves of all the tibiae, and all the tarsi black. 

 Pubescence on frons, thorax, abdomen, and legs throughout 

 fine and black. For further particulars see Zetterstedt, 

 " Dipt. Scand." t. iii. p. 942, and Schiner, " Faun. Austr." t. 

 i. p. 382. 



2. SVRPHUS NITENS, Ztt, (new to Scotland'). On the 

 25th August, while collecting at Aberlady in company with 

 Lieut. Col. Yerbury, I took a solitary female of this interest- 

 ing species, which, according to Verrall's recent work on the 

 Syrphidez, has not previously been taken north of Barmouth 

 in Wales and Sutton in Warwickshire. The characteristic 

 features of this species, which much resembles S. latifasdatus, 

 Mcq., are, as Verrall points out, (i) the peculiarly undulating 

 abdominal bands, (2) the brilliant purple colour of the 

 vertex, (3) the extension of this purple for a short distance 

 down the middle of the frons, (4) the presence of isolated 

 central black spots on the ventral surface of the second, 



