DASi'l'OGONINAE 



ROBBER FLIES OF THE WORLD 



41 



der bristly hairs laterally, the vertex is only moder- 

 ately excavated and has slanting sides. The ocella- 

 rium unusually large and wide with all ocelli swollen. 

 It bears 10 to 15 pairs of long, erect stiff, slightly 

 divergent hairs. Central eye facets strongly enlarged 

 and zoned. 



Thorax: Mesonotum high and strongly arched. It 

 is pubescent chiefly on the notopleural area and the 

 transverse suture is strongly arched and curves back- 

 ward. Anterior part of postcallosity, supraalar region, 

 and the pleuron except for a bare mesopleural spot, 

 pubescent. Pile of mesonotum rather dense and un- 

 usually long, but fine and delicate, crinkled and subap- 

 pressed and directed backwards. Humerus pilose. 

 Weak lateral bristles are present as 3 or 4 slender 

 notopleural bristles and no others. Scutellar margin 

 with long, quite delicate hairs. The scutellum thick, 

 convex, bare and shining except for pubescence on the 

 lower marginal rim. Propleuron with dense, long, 

 delicate pile, including the collar. Upper mesopleuron 

 with numerous fine hairs, sternopleuron with 2 hairs, 

 pteropleuron and hypopleuron micropubescent only, 

 metapleuron with a band of long, fine, delicate pile 

 above which are a few, stiff, slightly bristly hairs. 

 Metanotal slopes micropubescent only, metasternal 

 slopes and the metasternum with abundant quite long, 

 fine pile; postmetacoxal area membranous. 



Legs: The femora are only slightly stout, the hind 

 pair barely dilated on the apical half. The hind tibia 

 is stout but straight. The hind femur bears appressed 

 setae above, 3 bristly hairs medially at apex, 3 weak 

 bristles dorsolaterally at apex, and a rather abundant, 

 ventral fringe of long stiff hairs. The hind tibia bears 

 8 or 9 moderately long, sharp, oblique, dorsal bristles, 



2 dorsolateral at the base, 2 lateral in the middle, 2 or 3 

 long bristly hairs medially and an oblique ventral 

 fringe of stiff hairs. The apex has 1 dorsal, 3 lateral, 



3 medial, and 4 ventral bristles. Hind basitarsus in the 

 male extended into a very slender, distally attenuate, 

 laterally compressed, thin process which is longer than 

 the femur itself. The remaining tarsal segments min- 

 ute, greatly shortened, except that the last one is a little 

 swollen. The female basitarsus, while elongate and 

 nearly as long as the remaining segments, is robust and 

 cylindrical and in no way abnormal. Middle femur 

 with appressed pile above, 2 small bristles anteriorly 

 near apex, and a copious f ringe of long, stiff bristly pile 

 below. The middle tibia bears the following bristles: 

 10 short dorsal above, which are oblique, sharp, and 

 basally stout ; 2 anterior on the basal fourth ; 8 or more 

 long, slender posterior and 6 or 7 equally long postero- 

 ventral bristles. It also has 6 slender ventral and the 

 same number of slender, longer anteroventral bristles ; 

 apex with stout spines only below. The anterior femur 

 is similar to the middle femur; its tibia bears 8 short 

 stout posterodorsal, 8 to 10 shorter anterodorsal, 4 or 5 

 slender posterior, but with 2 additional stouter ones on 

 the outer third. It also has a few long slender postero- 

 ventral, some similar ventral and 2 stout, long bristles 

 near the apex. Apex of anterior tibia with a short, 



sharp, slender, curved spine. Pulvillus as long as the 

 claws; empodium fine, about half as long as the 

 pulvillus. 



Wings : The marginal cell widely open, all posterior 

 cells widely open, anal closed and stalked, second basal 

 cell closed by three veins. Alula moderately devel- 

 oped ; ambient vein complete. 



Abdomen: The abdomen is rather robust, slightly 

 wider at the end of the second and third tergites, where 

 it is wide as the mesonotum ; it is slightly tapered on the 

 fourth tergite ; considerably tapered on the fifth tergite. 

 Seven tergites present in the male, the seventh at least 

 half as long as the sixth, which is only slightly reduced. 

 Female with only five well developed tergites, the sixth, 

 seventh and eighth are quite small, short, dorsoventrally 

 flattened and together form the ovipositor. Pile of 

 abdomen dense, subappressed and setate with consider- 

 able, long, radiating, fine pile on the sides of tergite two 

 and some long pile laterally on tergite one. Bristles 

 absent. Sides of abdomen rolled; the sternites with 

 abundant, long, fine pile; the tergites are, therefore, 

 quite convex. Male terminalia small and short and not 

 rotate. The epandrium is downturned, arched and 

 hoodlike. The gonopod is well developed but the hy- 

 pandrium is greatly reduced. Dorsal proctiger with 

 deep, linear, medial fissure. 



Distribution : Palaearctic : Leptarthrus brevirostrls 

 Meigen (1804) [=apicalis Rossi (1840), armillahts 

 Fallen (1814), longitarsis Fallen (1814)]; vitripennis 

 Meigen (1820) [=elatus Meigen (1820), fhottentottus 

 Fabricius (1794), hyalipennis Meigen (1804) not 

 Fabricius]. 



Ethiopian: Leptarthrus parvulus Bigot (1859). 



Country unknown. Leptarthrus volcatius Walker 

 (1849). 



Ricardo (1912b), points out that Dasypogon volca- 

 tius Walker does not properly belong to Leptarthrus, 

 but she did not assign it to a genus. She noted a gen- 

 eral similarity to Deromyia Loew, by which she almost 

 certainly meant Diogmites Loew and not the Deromyia 

 Loew now restricted to Chile. It is included in this 

 species list until further study. 



Parmenter (1952b) has discussed the pupa of Lep- 

 tarthrus brevirostrls Meigen. 



Genus Molobratia Hull 



Figures 10, 537, 810, 819, 1632, 1643, 1921, 1974 



Molobratia Hull, Proe. Ent. Soe. Washington, vol. 60, p. 251, 

 1958. Type of genus: Asilus teutonus Linn6, 1767, by origi- 

 nal designation. 



Large or medium size flies, readily characterized by 

 the drooping aspect of head and abdomen, the bare 

 appearance, the long legs, open posterior cells and the 

 very greatly elongate protuberance of the protibia, to- 

 gether with the absence of spines on the female ter- 

 minalia. Distinguished from Dasypogon Meigen, with 

 which it has been confused owing to a misunderstand- 

 ing of generotypes, by the lack of the acanthophorite 



