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UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 24 



head, directed obliquely upward and elongate; the first 

 two segments are moderately lengthened, the first IV2 

 times as long as the second. The third segment is 1% 

 times as long as the first two and is somewhat wider 

 through the middle. The end of the third segment 

 bears a small opening and minute, concealed, yellow 

 spine. 



Head anterior aspect : The face is nearly one-third the 

 head width and with parallel sides ; it is brownish yel- 

 low, the pile and bristles entirely golden. The sides of 

 the face above the gibbosity bear matted downwardly 

 depressed pile; the middle of the face is bare and 

 shining on the upper half and not pubescent. The 

 lower gibbous part of the face has dense, very long, 

 slender, reddish golden bristles, which lie adjacent to 

 one another and extend as an oblique tuft to the end 

 of the proboscis. The vertex is slightly excavated but 

 transverse or only very slightly raised across the 

 middle ; the ocellarium is characteristically minute and 

 scarcely raised from the surrounding area and bears a 

 pair of weak, rather short, erect, yellow bristles. Sides 

 of the front without pile or bristles. 



Thorax : The mesonotum rather convex from in front 

 but very gently convex from the side. There is an 

 acrostical row of 7 or 8 scanty, appressed, yellow hairs 

 only on the anterior half. There is a submedial, bare 

 stripe and the lateral portion has scanty, short, fine, 

 appressed pile and golden pollen over a brownish 

 yellow background. The lateral bristles are short and 

 weak and red. They consist of 1 notopleural, 1 supraa- 

 lar, 2 still shorter postalar, 2 pairs of quite short scutel- 

 lar bristles, and 1 mesopleural bristle. Humerus and 

 pronotum without bristles. Upper mesopleuron with 

 fine, dark pile, upper middle of sternopleuron with 2 

 fine, long, yellow hairs and an oblique, creased ridge. 

 Pleural pollen reddish sepia; hypopleuron pollinose 

 only ; metapleuron with numerous, long, extremely fine, 

 black, upwardly bent hairs. Metanotal slopes strongly 

 bullose and without pile. 



Legs: Hind femur a little elongate, strongly thick- 

 ened on the outer half but reduced at the immediate 

 apex and more gently narrowed at the base; hind 

 femur densely, short, appressed, golden pilose with 

 a little longer, suberect, yellow pile below on the lat- 

 eral margins just before the middle; the outer third 

 bears a short, stout, yellow, microtuberculate, subven- 

 tral bristle. There is 1 medial subapical bristle and 

 1 medial basal bristle, no dorsal elements even at apex. 

 The hind tibia stout, without bristles except the apex, 

 where there are 2 weak dorsal elements, 1 lateral, 2 

 longer ventrolateral bristles. The anterior and middle 

 femur are also stout, the latter with 1 short, postero- 

 dorsal subapical, the former with 1 minute, subapical 

 bristle. Middle tibia with 2 moderately long, moder- 

 ately stout, reddish bristles and 4 at apex below ; also 

 with 2 weak dorsal and 2 anterior bristles. Anterior 

 tibia with 2 short, red, posterior bristles on the outer 

 half, 5 or 6 very weak, short anterodorsal, and a ven- 

 tral row of fine, reddish golden pile which is rather 

 long basally; the apex is unmodified. Anterior basi- 



tarsus quite short; all the tarsi short and thick; the 

 first segment is barely longer than the next two. 

 Claws rather short, strongly curved at apex and rather 

 blunt without being conspicuously blunt; pulvilli 

 nearly as long as claws, empodium three-fourths as 

 long as claw and laterally flattened. 



Whigs: The marginal cell closed with a long stalk. 

 The first posterior cell is strongly arched downward, 

 scarcely narrowed at apex but the whole cell long and 

 narrow. The upper and lower veins closing discal cell 

 make virtually a right angle. The vein closing the 

 fourth posterior cell is straight. Anal cell closed with 

 short stalk ; alula rather wide ; ambient vein complete. 



Abdomen: The abdomen is robust and rather con- 

 vex; the distal half is subcylindrical ; the sides are par- 

 allel; the abdomen is not as wide as the thorax and 

 not quite as wide as the mesonotum. Sides of first ter- 

 gite with 3 very stout, spinous, yellow bristles ; sides of 

 second to fourth tergites with 2 stout, dark red bristles. 

 Sides of remaining tergites only with quite long, dense, 

 reddish golden, appressed pile. Seven tergites visible, 

 the last 3 bear dense, posterior fringes of increasingly 

 long, reddish golden, appressed pile. Tergite 7 ap- 

 pears to have a long, medial, upcurled tuft of about 

 20 reddish yellow bristles which actually proceed from 

 the right side of the terminalia. Male terminalia very 

 large, conspicuous, elaborate and half rotate. 



Distribution: Ethiopian: Systropalpus aurivulpes, 

 new species. 



Systropalpus aurivulpes, new species 



A robust, strikingly colored fly with conspicuous, 

 reddish golden pile. 



Length 15 mm. Male. Head : Face brownish yellow, 

 the pile and bristles entirely golden. Facial gibbosity 

 bears dense, very long, slender, reddish golden bristles, 

 which lie adjacent to one another and extend as an 

 oblique tuft to the end of the proboscis. Pile of first 

 segment of palpus fine and yellow, with longer, reddish 

 golden pile on the large, leaflike, second segment. 

 Bristles of upper occiput weak, slender and reddish. 



Thorax : Except for three black stripes, the ground 

 color of mesonotum is brownish yellow to reddish in 

 color with golden pollen. There is a wide, black, 

 medial vitta; this stripe ends shortly before the scu- 

 tellum and is linearly furcate anteriorly. Sides of 

 mesonotum have a black stripe, which is not divided 

 at the suture and which ends before reaching the hu- 

 merus and again shortly before the postalar callosity, 

 where it becomes strongly oblique. Pleuron black or 

 nearly so with the pollen reddish sepia; metapleuron 

 with numerous, long, fine, upwardly bent, black hairs. 



Legs: The legs are reddish orange, the first four 

 more yellowish and with all tarsi and tibiae tending 

 to be slightly more brownish yellow than red; coxae 

 black with greyish to yellowish white pollen. Pile 

 of hind femur appressed and golden, the ventral pile 

 yellow ; bristles yellow. Bristles of first four legs red. 



