157 



Family Rhagionidee — The Snipe Flies 



Rhagio mystacea. 



Small to medium sized, nearly bare or thinly pilose flies. 



Face very strongly receding, the middle convex but lying much 

 below the level of the eyes in profile; males holo])tic or the eyes very 

 narrowly separated. AntennfB composed of three segments, the third 

 bearing a terminal or dorsal arista or rather slender style. Scutel- 

 luni unarmed. Legs long; empodium developed pulvilliform (but 

 slightly developed in Ililarimorpha) . Wing venation strong; four or 

 five posterior cells, tlie discal cell absent only in HiJarimorpha. Abdo- 

 men long aiul usually tapering. 



Tiie Snipe Flies are common in woods, especially near moist places 

 and may be found on foliage, in long grass and on tree trunks. They 

 are predaceous in both the adult and larval stages. Leonard* has 

 revised the Nearctic species. 



There has been much confusion in regard to the limits of this 

 family, those genera which I have placed in the Coenomyiidge being in- 

 cluded by Williston. Hxlarimorpha has been placed in the Empidsp, 

 and Bombyliida^ but from its general structure I feel certain that it 

 belongs here, despite the poorly developed empodium. The shape of 

 the face excludes it from both families mentioned and the wing vena- 

 tion cannot be considered of prime imi)ortance. 



* 1930. Mem. Amer. Ent. Soc. No. 7. 



