BY G. H. HARDY. 297 



Family APIOCEKIDAE. 



Historical. — In 1830, Wiedemann ileseribed Laphria brevicornis. In 1838 

 (pt. 2, p. 78) Macquart proposed the genus Tapinocera for Wiedemann's species 

 without seeing it, and he retained the genus within the family AsiUdae. Later, 

 in 1847, Macquart described and illustrated Pomacera higotii from Tasmania and 

 did not recognise his genus Tapiiwcera in the species. 



Westwood described Apiocera fuscicollis and Apiocera asilica in 1835; in 

 1841 he added A. moerens and at the same time made the statement that he was 

 not satisfied with the specific diversity of the three species. He also mentioned 

 that his specimen of A. asilica was in a very mutilated state. 



In 1854, Walker placed P. bigutii Macquart as a synonym of A. asilica 

 Westwood but, however, as the description given by Walker was that of A. 

 moerens and not that of .1. asilica, it is possilile that Walker intended to make 

 Macquart's species a synonym of A. moenens Westwood. 



In 1883, Osten-Sacken published remarks similar to the above and expressed 

 the opinion that the whole subject required a revision based upon abundant 

 material and added that the genus was represented by four different species 

 which he had seen in collections. 



In 1009, Hermann recorded a female of A. moerens Westwood from North 

 Borneo and a male from New South Wales; also a male of A. fuscicomis West- 

 wood from New South Wales and a female of A. bigotii Macquart from Cook- 

 town, Queensland; finally he described a species from Queensland under the 

 name A. vulpes. 



It is to be regretted that Hermann did not improve upon the descriptions 

 of ,1. bigotii Macquart, A. fuscicollis Westwood and ^1. moerens Westwood from 

 the material he had at bis disposal as this would have been more useful than 

 adding a new name to the uncertain number of valid species previously described. 



Genus Apiocera Westwood. (Text-figs. 13-10). 



Type, A. fuscicollis Westwood. Australia. 



Characters. — Rather large thick-set flies with three-jointed antennae and 

 a one- or indistinctly two-jointed style. The wings have a complex venation. 

 The costal and subcostal veins meet before the apex of the wing; the mediastinal 

 vein between them reaches to or beyond half the length of the wing. The radial 

 vein runs into the subcostal. The upper and lower branch of the cubital vein 

 runs into the wing margin before the wing apex. The first posterior vein runs 

 to the margin at about the apex of the wing. The second posterior vein runs 

 about [jarallel to the first but reaches the wing margin considerably after the 

 apex The third posterior vein meets the fourth, thus closing the fourth pos- 

 terior cell, before reaching the wing margin. The fifth posterior vein meets the 

 anal at or about the wing margin. The anal vein is slightly sinuous. 



The exoskeleton shows differences of specific value in the characters dis- 

 cussed below. 



Head: Considerable structural differences are to be found between the 

 species in the proportional length, size and shape of the palpi which are two 

 jointed ; in the length of the proboscis ; and in the proportional shape and length 

 of the antennae. Text-figures 13 to 16 represent four distinct species that differ 

 widely in these respects. 



