RIIAPHIUM. 193 



exceedingly short, so that the arista is close to the tip. Thorax above 

 with a rmtij tinge, opake, faintly striped. Prosternum unanued. Wings 

 dark hyaline, with the veins blackish to the root ; the transverse vein 

 and dot of the subapical clouded with brown. Ualteres dmlaj. Legs 

 blackish, the tip of the feniora, the tiljiee, and the base of the tarsi 

 ferruginous ; the fore tibia darker, and almost unarmed, the bristles 

 on the others very few and slight ; the posterior femora near the tip 

 in front, and the posterior coxae outside, have each a single one of the 

 same sort. The male is unknown. 



Very rare. lu Messrs. Dde's and Halida/s collections. (E. S.) 



Genus VIII. RHAPHIUM. 



Rhaphium, Ztt. ; Lw. Hydrochm, Fin. Forphijrops, Mg. (1830). 

 Rhaphium et Porphi/rops, Mq. ; Ct. Rhaphium (1803) et Porphy- 

 rops p., Mg. (1824). Rhaphium, Perithiuus, et Plectropafs, Hal. 

 Bolichojms p., Fb. s. a. Musca p., Fb. Anylearia, Carlier. 



Antenna: articuJo tertio apice semim attenuato aut lineari, arista apicali 



vel suhapicali. Proboscis obtusa. Vena transversa a maryine distans, 



Hypopyyiimi maris immersum. Tibice spimdosce. 



Antenna; with the first joint naked, the third joint linear, or taperiny 



yradually ; the arista at the tip, or nearly so. Proboscis short, obtuse. 



Eyes pubescent, distant on the front. Discal transverse vein distant 



from the hind margin of the winy ; subcostal vein not surpassing a third 



of the length of the wing, ending nearly opposite the middle of the 



discal areolet. Hypopyyium of the male short, imhedded in the ventral 



cavity. Tibice, at least the posterior pairs, armed ivith spi?ies, both at 



the sides and tip. 



This difficult genus lias been well elucidated and amplified by 

 Loew", in an elaborate critical review of the European species, 

 inserted in the Stettin 'Entomological Jom-ual' for 1850. He 

 has considered it as a receptacle for the species excluded from 

 the other genera with terminal arista. Accordingly a natural 

 character can scarcely be fi'amed for it, containing, as it stands, 

 three, if not foui", groups that claim generic rank, but whicli it 

 will be rather the province of a monograph to establish. The 

 analytic table, and observations thereon, will supply as much as 

 seems requisite, in this respect, for the piu'poscs of a simple fauna. 

 The correct discrimination of the species, as Loew lias shown, 

 rests chiefly on the characters drawn from the male sex ; but in 

 the previous steps of the analysis the distinctive characters com- 



VOL. I. 2 c 



