I APHRIIN .IE 



ROBBER FLIES OF THE WORLD 



357 



Abdomen : The first four tergites black with coppery 

 or violet reflections and the last three brownish orange 

 to yellow with dense, posterior fringes of increasingly 

 long, reddish golden, appressed pile; the right side of 

 the terminalia bears a long, medial, curled upward 

 tuft of some 20 reddish yellow bristles. 



Type. Male, Ethiopia; in the Zoologische Staats- 

 sammlung, Munich. 



Genus Proagonistes Loew 



Figures 222, 634, 1255, 1264, 2091, 2090, 2134 



Proagonistes Loew, Ofvers. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Forhandl., vol. 

 14, p. 367, 1S58. Type of genus: Proagonistes validus 

 Loew, 1858, by monotypy. 



Extremely large flies of robust, yet elongate form. 

 With few exceptions they are characterized by dark, 

 sepia wings which may also have a bluish reflection. 

 The stout but unswollen legs and the wings are both 

 exceptionally long. Face with a very prominent, 

 rounded gibbosity, which bears numerous bristles and 

 stiff hairs. Proboscis directed forward as a general 

 ride with a quite sharp apex and usually curved up- 

 ward. The base is always strongly swollen, the sec- 

 ond palpal segment flared, flattened and excavated. 

 Length 20 to 50 mm. 



Head, lateral aspect: The eye is of normal width 

 but sometimes short and greatly flattened. Occiput 

 prominent and swollen on the lower portion of the 

 head but very short and obliterated on the upper third. 

 Pile of occiput quite dense, long, and coarse; such pile 

 may continue to the vertex, obscuring a deeper row 

 of slender bristles; or rarely the pile is reduced or 

 eliminated along the lower third of the eye and is re- 

 placed by stout bristles, of which there may be 7 to 12 

 pairs. Proboscis stout, sharply pointed at the apex 

 which is often curved slightly upward; the base is 

 characteristically very strongly swollen, the ventral 

 surface bears a strong, medial groove; the apex is 

 depressed dorsoventrally, at least for a short distance. 

 A low dorsal medial ridge is present on the basal half, 

 or sometimes extending over the middle; the apex 

 usually on the outer third bears abundant, stiff, dor- 

 sal and ventral pile, the base below has numerous, 

 long, stiff hairs. Palpus of two segments, the first 

 quite short, more or less fused, the second long, flat- 

 tened, flared with the open, hemicylindroid surface 

 laterally containing a number of stiff bristles. An- 

 tenna attached at the upper sixth of the head and 

 moderately elongate. The first segment is longer than 

 the second; the third segment oval, flattened in the 

 middle, 2 to 3 times as high as the second and about 

 iy 2 times as long as the combined length of the first 

 two. At the apex of the third segment is a pit bear- 

 ing a concealed spine. First segment with numerous, 

 long, stiff bristles below, and some shorter bristles 

 above, occasionally reduced in numbers. Third seg- 

 ment with 2 or 3 long, stiff bristles above and below 



and shorter bristles laterally and medially. This seg- 

 ment may bear a single, quite long, stout, dorsal bristle. 



Head, anterior aspect: The face below antenna is 

 a third the head width and divergent below. Sub- 

 epistomal area moderately large, slightly oblique, 

 concave and bare and more or less enclosed by the pal- 

 pus. Face shining and bare, except for a narrow line 

 of pubescence along the eye margin, or rarely extend- 

 ing over the lateral third of the face. The gibbous 

 portion bears a great many long, stiff bristles extend- 

 ing outward as far as the end of the proboscis; the 

 sides and upper portion may have only stiff, bristly 

 hairs. Front quite short with numerous, stiff bristles 

 laterally or sometimes with not more than two. The 

 surface is bare, the vertex moderately excavated with 

 a low ocellarium carrying across the middle a single 

 pair of long, stout bristles or more commonly a trans- 

 verse row of several bristles of varying length. Eye 

 facets only moderately enlarged. 



Thorax: The thorax is thinly pollinose; the mesono- 

 tal pile is scanty, fine, short, appressed and setate, with 

 large, apilose areas, and there is present a distinct, wide 

 band of similar, acrostical pile, which may be reduced 

 to a single row. Dorsocentral elements become longer, 

 though very fine at the level of the postalar region. 

 Humerus with numerous, stiff, bristly hairs. The 

 lateral bristles consist of 1 to 3 notopleural, 2 to 4 

 supraalar, 6 to 8 postalar, 3 to 4 scutellar bristles. Scu- 

 tellum thick, convex, with a number of rather short 

 setae on the disc; the rim is sometimes impressed, the 

 base has a deep crease. Propleuron with dense, thick, 

 coarse pile below and with similar, not bristly pile on 

 the postpronotum. Sternopleuron, hypopleuron, meso- 

 pleuron, and pteropleuron with abundant, long pile ; the 

 upper posterior mesopleuron with 3 or 4 stout bristles 

 and an additional, weaker bristle in the extreme upper 

 corner. Metapleuron with a vertical band of numerous, 

 long, slender bristles; metanotal slopes micropubescent 

 only, in 16 species examined, and in Proagonistes api- 

 calis with 12 to 15 fine hairs. Tegula with bristles. 

 Lateral metasternum is densely long pilose; ventral 

 metasternum chitinized and long pilose, and isolated 

 both anteriorly and posteriorly; postmetacoxal area 

 membranous; the lateral metasternal chit in meets in 

 the middle without being fused apically, and is widely 

 separated by half the width in P. apicalis and in P. 

 igniferum. Prosternum not dissociated. 



Legs: The legs are unusually long; they are stout 

 without being swollen, though in Proagonistes igni- 

 ferum the hind femur is very slightly swollen dorsally. 

 The pile is dense, short, appressed dorsally but becomes 

 longer and erect on the ventral surfaces of the anterior 

 femur. The following bristles are present: On the 

 hind femur laterally there is 1 near the base and 1 near 

 the apex, with a corresponding bristle on the opposite 

 side; 1 laterally at the apex, and 1 medially a short 

 distance from the apex; the hind tibia bears 5 weak, 

 slender bristles dorsomedially, 2 to 5 stronger bristles 

 dorsolaterally, and 5 quite slender bristles ventrolater- 

 ally ; a brush of setae is present ventrally on the outer 



