DASTPOGONINAB 



ROBBER FLIES OF THE WORLD 



167 



the first four tergites, but in the female laterally it is 

 quite short and scanty though erect. Sides of the first 

 tergite very slightly protuberant, pinched from the 

 sternal margin by the metasternum in the second tergite 

 and bearing 5 or 6 moderately stout bristles. Male 

 with seven tergites, the seventh is three-fourths as long 

 as the sixth; female with eight tergites, the eighth 

 dorsally two-fifths as long as the seventh. Male ter- 

 minalia rotate one-half; the hypandrium is large and 

 triangular and the epandrium is split to its base and 

 divergent. In the female are 5 pairs of moderately 

 long, spoon-shaped spines, bluntly rounded at the apices. 

 Distribution : Ethiopian : Neodysmachus setithoraci- 

 cus Ricardo (1925). 



Genus Callinicus Loew 

 Figures 90, 503, 955, 964, 1037, 1046, 1698, 1750, 1792 



Callinicus Loew, Berliner Ent. Zeitschr., vol. 16, p. 71, 1872. 



Type of genus : Callinicus calcaneus Loew, 1872, by 



monotypy. 

 Chrysoceria Williston, Journ. New York Ent. Soe., vol. 15, p. 1, 



1907. Type of genus : fLaparus pictitarsis Bigot, 1878, by 



original designation. 



Flies of medium size or slightly larger, of bare ap- 

 pearance and generally light coloration which is some- 

 times due to pollen. All the wing cells are open. It 

 is rather easily distinguished from all other asilids ex- 

 cept the Australian Questopogon Dakin and Fordham 

 by the presence of the 2 stout backwardly turned spines 

 at the apex of the middle tibia. It is probably related 

 to Questopogon, from which it is separated by the pro- 

 tibial spur being single and not double or triple as it 

 is in these Australian flies. There is also a possibility 

 of relationship with the small flies of the American 

 genus Wilcoxia James. Length 12 to 25 mm. 



Head, lateral aspect : The head is of medium length ; 

 the face is prominent but nowhere produced or gibbous. 

 The occiput is prominent only on the lower half, much 

 of it due to the gradual anteroventral recession of the 

 eye, which begins at the midplane of the eye. Occipital 

 pile coarse and dense below, scanty above, largely re- 

 placed by weak or moderate bristles. The proboscis 

 is comparatively robust and extends a short distance 

 beyond the face; its form is subcylindrical. The ven- 

 tral surface is plane, the dorsal surface abruptly arched 

 to a point at the apex and this portion bears coarse, 

 bristly pile ; ventrally are a number of long, fine hairs 

 more numerous at the base. Palpus clearly of two 

 segments, first segment excavated and the second porate, 

 spindle-shaped, with bristly hairs on all sides. The 

 antenna is attached at the upper third and is approxi- 

 mately equal to the total head length. The first two 

 segments are comparatively short and subequal, both 

 with bristles below and again with comparatively long 

 bristles dorsally at their apices. Second segment be- 

 low with 1 or 2 stout bristles. Third segment slender, 

 usually a little dilated towards the middle and bearing 

 two microsegments, the first short, the second longer, 

 stout and with spine at apex. 



Head, anterior aspect: The face below antenna is ap- 

 proximately two-fifths the head width and slightly 

 wider below ; it is densely micropubescent with only a 

 few scattered hairs on the upper portion and with a 

 loose, narrow band of weak to moderately stout bristles 

 above the epistoma. Subepistomal area large and 

 oblique. Antennal microsegments directed obliquely 

 downward. Front short, flat, pollinose, with a few fine 

 setae laterally or weak bristles in the upper lateral 

 corners. Vertex but little excavated, the ocellarium, 

 however, large and prominent with vertical sides and 

 4 or 5 pairs of stout, long bristles. Anterior eye facets 

 moderately enlarged. 



Thorax : The mesonotum pollinose with scanty, scat- 

 tered, setate pile. There is a distinct single or double 

 acrostical row of bristles ; dorsocentral elements are dif- 

 ferentiated except on the anterior third and become 

 long and prominent on the posterior third. The lateral 

 complement of bristles consists of 5 or 6 weak humeral, 

 or the humerus may have only coarse, bristly pile, 2 

 to 4 stout notopleural, 5 or more supraalar, 3 to 5 

 postalar, and 3 or 4 pairs of scutellar bristles which 

 may be weak or strong. The scutellum is gently convex 

 and with or without pollen. Propleuron with a band 

 of -weak bristles or bristly hairs on the collar but only 

 with tufts of rather fine, long pile laterally. Posterior 

 margin of the mesopleuron and upper sternopleuron 

 with abundant pile, the pteropleuron and hypopleuron 

 apilose. The metapleuron has a wide, oval patch of 

 numerous, long, slender bristles and bristly hair. Ven- 

 tral and lateral metasternum with abundant, long pile; 

 postmetacoxal area membranous; prosternum dissoci- 

 ated. Tegula with bristly hairs. 



Legs : All the femora are stout without being swollen. 

 They are densely beset with oppressed setae but bristles 

 are reduced; on the hind femur are 2 rather stout, 

 lateral bristles, usually at the basal third near the 

 middle, and, in what is probably a continuation of this 

 row, there are 2 or 3 dorsolateral bristles beginning at 

 the apical fifth and extending up to the dorsal surface 

 at the apex. There are also 2 or 3 dorsomedial apical 

 bristles. Middle femur with 1 or 2 weak, ventral, basal 

 bristles, 2 stout, posterolateral apical bristles, and the 

 anterior femur has 1 or 2 weak or stout apical postero- 

 lateral bristles. All the tibial bristles rather long and 

 stout, especially the dorsal and ventral rows of the 

 middle tibia and the ventral row of the anterior tibia. 

 Posterior tibia with 4 dorsolateral, 6 dorsomedial, 2 

 ventromedial and 7 ventrolateral bristles. The apical 

 cluster consists of about 11 bristles. The hind basi- 

 tarsus curves downward and inward slightly towards 

 the apex. Middle tibia with 6 prominent anterodorsal, 

 a like number of shorter posterodorsal and posteroven- 

 tral, besides 4 prominent ventral and a single long, 

 stout apical anteroventral bristle. Midtibial apex with 

 a pair of long, stout backwardly turned spines or spi- 

 nous bristles. On the anterior tibia the 2 or 3 oblique, 

 ventral bristles are long and stout, the others shorter. 

 Protibia without spine, its apical bristles stout but not 

 otherwise unusual. Claws long, sharp, strong!}' bent at 



