AHT. 6 NOTES ON ORIENTAL. SAPROMYZID FLIES MALLOCH 3 



Subfamily Celyphinae 



This group has usually been given distinct family rank, but I con- 

 sider it is merely a subfamily of Sapromyzidae, distinguished by 

 the very large convex scutellum, which usually covers the entire 

 abdomen and gives the insects a beetle-like appearance, and is with 

 one exception without marginal or discal bristles. With the l^iscov- 

 ery of the new genus Idiocelyphus described herein the claim to 

 family distinction of the group is very much weakened as in it the 

 scutellum is very much smaller than usual and it has four well- 

 developed bristles. Many of the species are metallic blue or violet 

 colored, quite distinct from any in the other subfamily, but some are 

 almost entirely testaceous, a color predominating in the Sapro- 

 myzinae. I have recently briefly discussed the family characters in 

 " Entomologische Mittelungen " (1927, page 160), but did not at 

 that time have access to the new genus above mentioned. In addi- 

 tion to the characters mentioned in that paper it appears worth 

 noting that while there are no distinct bristles on the frontal field 

 there are four very fine minute hairs which appear to me to repre- 

 sent the two pairs of orbital bristles usually present in Sapromyzinae. 

 One of these pairs of fine hairs is situated near the margin on upper 

 half and represents the upper pair of orbitals, while the other is near 

 anterior margin and each hair is about as far from eye as from each 

 other and incurved. In this subfamily we find also the only case 

 where the cross vein separating the discal and posterior basal cells 

 of the wings is absent in Sapromyzidae, but it is not invariably so 

 in the group, being confined to three species previously placed in 

 Spmiiocelyphus and the single species of Idiocelyphus. The presence 

 or absence of this cross vein has been utilized as a generic character 

 in related families and is generally considered as of considerable im- 

 portance in classification so I have deemed it proper to separate the 

 three species first above mentioned from the typical forms of Spwriio- 

 celyphus. 



The five genera at pre^sent known to me may be distinguished as 

 below. 



KEY TO THE GENEBA 



1. A distinct cross vein separating the discal and posterior basal cells of 



wing 2. 



No cross vein separating discal and posterior basal cells of wings 4. 



2. Arista very slightly widened at base, the widest portion not more than one- 



fourth as. wide as third antennal segment; vertex rounded; postvertical 



bristles absent Paracelyphus Bigot. 



Artista very conspicuously widened on more than its basal half, leaf-like, its 

 greatest width almost, or quite, as great as that of third antennal seg- 

 ment 3., 



