DASTFOGONINAE 



ROBBER FLIES OF THE WORLD 



47 



palpus and facial bristles; the face is coarsely pubes- 

 cent laterally but may be polished and bare over the 

 middle third. Pile absent on the upper half but with 

 a few stiff, bristly hairs laterally opposite the anterior 

 epistomal margin. Lower half of face with numer- 

 ous long bristles, most of them extending beyond the 

 proboscis; the more ventral elements are stout, the dor- 

 sal and lateral bristles slender. Front broad, flattened 

 across the middle, gently sloping laterally from the 

 eye; it is bare, polished, the lateral portion with numer- 

 ous, slender, moderately long, bristly hairs. Vertex 

 deeply excavated, the ocellarium unusually large and 

 wide with gently sloping sides. A transverse band 

 of bristly pile stretches completely across the ocel- 

 larium between the ocelli and additional similar pile 

 occurs between and behind the posterior ocelli. An- 

 terior eye facets only moderately enlarged. 



Thorax : The mesonotum is pollinose, long and mod- 

 erately convex, with fine, erect, bristly pile; acrosticals 

 absent. The pleuron has minute, appressed micro- 

 pubescence; humerus pilose. There are some, stout, 

 mesonotal bristles present on the notopleuron, 1 post- 

 supraalar and 2 or 3 postalar ; scutellar margin with 2 

 or 3 pairs. The lateral slope of the metasternum has 

 dense, long pile posteriorly; ventral metasternum 

 strongly chitinized, with abundant, fine, long pile; 

 postmetacoxal area membranous. 



Legs: The hind femur and tibia are elongate; this 

 femur is slightly dilated and densely appressed setate. 

 It has the following bristles: 1 dorsolateral, 1 dorso- 

 medial subapical, and 1 lateral near the apex ; its tibia 

 has 3 to 5 dorsomedial, 5 ventral, 3 dorsolateral, and 

 4 minute, short, medial bristles; tibial apex with 5 

 ventral, 1 lateral, 1 dorsolateral, and 2 medial bristles. 

 The midfemur is considerably thicker than the hind 

 femur, shorter, and bears 1 strong, anterior subapical, 

 2 adjacent, posterior subapical bristles; its tibia with 



6 posterodorsal, 4 exceptionally long anterodorsal, 4 

 posteroventral bristles, besides a dense ventral fringe 

 of long, erect pile and similar shorter dorsal pile ; apex 

 of this tibia with several short bristles anteriorly and 

 a short apical lobe. Anterior femur with 2 to 4 stout, 

 posterodorsal bristles; its tibia similar to the middle 

 pair, and also without apical spine. All tarsi end in 

 bladelike empodium and well developed pulvillus; 

 claws sharp. 



Wings : The wings are broad at base, becoming some- 

 what narrowed or pointed but rounded apically. The 

 base of the second submarginal cell has a distinct spur 

 vein. Venation very similar to Phellus. Ambient 

 vein complete. 



Abdomen: The abdomen is elongate, subcylindrical 

 basally, often a little widened on the distal half or 

 sometimes without such expansion. There are eight 

 tergites in the male, the seventh half as long as the 

 sixth, the eighth less than half as long as the seventh. 

 Female with six tergites, the seventh and eighth form- 

 ing a thick, obtuse ovipositor, which is a little com- 

 pressed laterally, but not conspicuously, leaving the 

 dorsal half strongly convex; fifth and sixth tergites 

 nearly equal in length and the seventh and eighth also 

 each nearly as long as the sixth. Pile of the abdomen 

 short, abundant, subappressed and setate, the sides of 

 the first two tergites with numerous fine, long, erect 

 hairs; bristles absent. Male terminalia moderately 

 large, not rotate, the superior forceps completely 

 formed, but apposed and bluntly rounded, the hypan- 

 drium short. Female terminalia thick and composed 

 of the seventh and eighth tergites, which are nearly as 

 long as the proceeding segments, and also the short 

 ninth and tenth, the ninth extremely short; the tenth 

 is covered with many fine, stout, erect, bristly setae. 



Distribution: Australian: Psilozona albitarsis Ri- 

 cardo (1912); nigritarsis Ricardo (1912). Both of 

 these species are from Queensland. 



Tribe Chrysopogonini 



This is a small tribe of mostly medium size flies re- 

 stricted to Australia. They are immediately distin- 

 guished by the presence of a notopleural tubercle 

 carrying a short, heavy spine and also by the form of the 

 proboscis, which is elongate, apically pointed, slightly 

 but distinctly arched, and the concave aspect is directed 

 toward the ventral side; it shows a high, thin, dorsal 

 ridge. Moreover, spines of the type found in Dasy- 

 pogon Meigen are lacking on the female ovipositor. 

 The ninth tergite of the male consists of a generalized, 

 uncleft structure with forceps absent. All posterior 

 cells and anal cell open. These flies range from black 

 to bright golden pollinose, or sometimes reddish forms 

 and occasionally they are of large size. The palpus 

 tends to be large, clavate, with very large, apical orifice. 

 All of the members of this tribe possess the anterior 



tibial spine or spur with the exception of Codula 

 Macquart. 



Because of the similarity in notopleural tubercle and 

 in the presence of the same arched, pointed, keeled pro- 

 boscis, I believe that Codula Macquart must be placed 

 in this small tribe, all members of which are Australian. 

 I have included Chryseutria Hardy here provisionally 

 in spite of the spines of the female genitalia. I have 

 seen no specimens of this genus Chryseutria. When 

 I visited Hardy, he stated that the unique type of this 

 genus is lost. Is it possible that through Codula Mac- 

 quart on the one hand and Chryseutria Hardy on the 

 other, we see a group which has a surviving member 

 in three different stages of the past history of the 

 group ? 



