303 



Family Calobatidse — The Stilt-legged Flies 



/ 

 Calobata univittata. 



Elongate flies with very long legs and dorsal, bare to plumose arista. 



Head higher than long, rather orbicular or elongate, the front wide 

 in both sexes and usually with bristles; face usually receding, the oral 

 margin more or less produced, the clypeus large and polished; palpi 

 flat and broad; antenna? of moderate length, pendulous, with dorsal, 

 bare to plumose arista. Thorax elongate, bi'istled posteriorly and on 

 the sides; sternopleura with long bristly hair behind; true sternopleural 

 bristles absent; ptcropleura bare. Legs very lono-, the anterior pair 

 widely separated from the middle pair, femora rarely with small bris- 

 tles, the posterior four tibia} usually with tiny bristles. Wings long, 

 usually marked with l)rown or black, the anal cell rectangular or angu- 

 late apically; apical cell usually narrowed apically; auxiliary vein lying 

 very close to the first vein and usually partly touching it, rarely ending 

 well before the first vein. Al)domen long and narrow, the ovipositor 

 long. 



The adults are found near moist i)laces in the Neartic region Init 

 seem to occur everywhere in the tropics, where they are scavengers, and 

 evidently the larva? live in excrement. Some species have been reared 

 from excrement and the adults are attracted to it in very large numbers. 

 However, I have found a few of tlie tropical species only on foliage 

 near streams and these may have a different habit. Enderlein* has 

 reviewed the group and Cresson has described many species. 



1922, Arch, fur NaturK.. Ixxxviii, Abt. 5. pp. 140-229. 



