LAPHBIINAE 



ROBBER FLIES OF THE WORLD 



331 



the setae sometimes nearly or quite erect, at least in part. 

 Acrostical elements are undifferentiated; dorsoeentral 

 hairs or bristles become a little longer and differentiated 

 before the suture but are not stout posteriori}'. Hu- 

 merus with stiff pile only. The long, stout, lateral bris- 

 tles consist of 1 notopleural, 2 to 4 supraalar, 2 or 3 

 postalar, and 2 pairs of scutellar. Scutellum only mod- 

 erately thick but convex, bare or pollinose, -with scat- 

 tered fine, short bristles. Propleuron with numerous, 

 long, stiff hairs, the upper propleuron similar and with- 

 out bristles except on the anterodorsal pronotum which 

 has slender bristles; the pile is sometimes rather fine. 

 Mesopleuron and upper sternopleuron with some scat- 

 tered, short, stiff pile in the type of genus ; the anterior 

 mesopleuron may have similar pile or abundant, fine, 

 long pile; the upper mesopleuron with a few, fine, stiff 

 hairs and its bristles reduced to 2 or 3 exceptionally 

 long, slender, stiff hairs which might possibly be re- 

 garded as bristles. In the type of genus is a quite stout, 

 extremely long mesopleural bristle. Hypopleuron with 

 fine, long pile ; metapleruon witli an irregular, vertical 

 row of 8 or 10 long, stout, straight bristles or 12 to 15 

 long, fine bristles bent distally. Metanotal slopes mi- 

 cropubescent only; lateral and ventral metasternum 

 with pile; postmetacoxal area membranous, the lateral 

 wall only slightly encroaching on the ventral medial 

 area. Prosternum not dissociated. 



Legs : The femora are stout, at most very little swol- 

 len dorsally ; in this respect it differs from Maira where 

 the hind femur is distinctly swollen on its dorsal aspect 

 and the lower margin is plane. This distinction has 

 been checked by the examination of 18 species of Maira 

 and 9 species of Orthogonis. The following comple- 

 ment of bristles is present in the type of genus : on the 

 hind femur 1 stout, lateral bristle at both basal and 

 distal third and distally with a corresponding bristle on 

 the medial side; the dorsal pile is dense, appressed 

 setate with a row of 10 fine, long, bristly hairs partly 

 doubled ; ventral pile very scanty, fine, erect, longer and 

 doubled on the basal half. Hind tibia with 4 or 5 long, 

 slender, dorsomedial bristles, 1 slender, dorsolateral 

 near the base, and 2 exceptionally stout, long, dorso- 

 lateral bristles, 1 at the middle and 1 at the outer 

 fourth, 1 distal ventrolateral bristle, and 2 or 3 slender, 

 basal bristles. The ventral tibial surface has fine, 

 scanty, medium long bristles and a brush of setae on the 

 outer fifth. Middle femur with 1 very stout, long 

 bristle anteriorly just beyond the middle, 1 shorter, 

 stout bristle posteriorly near the apex. The middle 

 tibia has quite long, oblique, basally stout, attenuate 

 bristles consisting of 3 dorsal, 2 anterodorsal, 1 in the 

 middle and 1 at the outer fourth, 1 anterior at the basal 

 third, 4 postero ventral, the second and fourth elements 

 stout, and 3 exceptionally stout ventral and 3 fine pos- 

 terior bristles, all basal in position. Anterior femur 

 with 1 stout, lateral apical and 1 posterodorsal at the 

 outer third. The anterior tibial bristles are similar to 

 the middle tibia but only the posterior elements are 

 long ; the dorsal surface has an irregular double row of 

 8 pairs ; the posterior bristles are 3 in number ; the ven- 



tral bristles are scarcely more than stiff hairs. Claws 

 stout, moderately sharp; the pulvilli well developed; 

 the empodium bladelike, basally swollen. 



Wings : The marginal cell is closed, with a long stalk ; 

 anterior branch of the third vein ends just before the 

 wing apex ; the posterior branch ends far behind. The 

 first posterior cell is always widely open. The lower 

 end vein of the discal cell and of the closed and stalked 

 fourth posterior cell are usually in exact line or offset by 

 distinctly less than than the length of the remaining 

 upper vein closing the discal cell. Anal cell closed and 

 stalked ; alula large, extending rather strongly outward 

 and downward; ambient vein complete. 



Abdomen: The abdomen is robust, convex, as wide 

 as the mesonotum. Pile of the abdomen quite fine and 

 short and scanty, though a little more abundant and 

 longer laterally. First tergite with 4 very stout bristles, 

 the remaining tergites with equally stout bristles, 2 pairs 

 on the second tergite or on the second to fourth tergites 

 or with oidy 1 beyond the second tergite, the sixth ter- 

 gite with none. Males with 6 tergites, the seventh 

 totally concealed; 6 well developed tergites in the 

 female, the seventh and sometimes the eighth visible as 

 a narrow, liplike extension beyond ; rarely is the seventh 

 tergite somewhat more extensive laterally. Male termi- 

 nalia rather large and conspicuous, rotate one-half. 

 There is a ventral, bowl-shaped epandrium in some in- 

 stances; in others this structure is quite short ventrally. 

 Female terminalia short, rather wide dorsally, with 

 ventrally a pair of small, slender, bristle-bearing lobes. 

 # Distribution : Ethiopian : Orthogonis madagascaren- 

 sis Bromley ( 1942) . 



Oriental: Orthogonis sca/wZam Wiedemann (1828). 



Genus Smeryngolaphria Hermann 

 Figures 269, 275, 620, 1310, 1319, 1610 



Smeryngolaphria Hermann, Nova Acta Acad. Caes. Leop.-Carol., 

 vol. 96, p. 226, 1912. Type of genus: Laphria meJanura 

 Wiedemann, 1828, by original designation. 



Parmmasilus Curran, Amer. Mus. Novitates, no. 425, p. 20, 1930. 

 Type of genus: Panamasilus xylota Curran, 1930, by origi- 

 nal designation. 



Flies of rather elongate and comparatively slender 

 abdomen; they are usually large and frequently pale 

 in color. The genus is distinguished by the short, 

 rather small proboscis is with cylindrical apex, the 

 rather short pilosity on the thorax and abdomen. The 

 anterior branch of the third vein is straight, the elon- 

 gate hind femur is not or scarcely thickened, bears no 

 tubercles, the metanotal callosity is not pilose and the 

 abdominal tergites have strong bristles. It especially 

 differs from other Laphriini genera in the absence of a 

 ventral facial gibbosity. Length 25 to 35 mm. 



Head, lateral aspect: The face is slightly to moder- 

 ately produced and gently convex ; the eye is short and 

 narrowly recessive below. The occiput is completely 

 obliterated on nearly the upper half of the head, nar- 

 rowly visible below the middle and a little more promi- 



