532 



UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 224 



closed and stalked; alula large, the ambient vein 

 complete. 



Abdomen : The abdomen is a little shorter than the 

 wing, hence comparatively stout and robust and slightly 

 tapered. The pile is coarse, suberect, in part setate, 

 and rather long and abimdant. Bristles are confined 

 to the first tergite. The stemites characteristically 

 bear fine, bristly pile but no bristles. Males with 

 eight tergites, each one becoming progressively shorter 

 and the last two quite short but a little longer laterally. 

 Females with eight tergites, the eighth tergite long. 

 Male terminalia large, and broad, the superior forceps 

 well developed and cleft almost to the base ; these for- 

 ceps characteristically are often found with elaborate 

 processes, lobes and spines and bristles. Gonopod quite 

 short, wedged in between the long, laterally convex, 

 broad, hypandrivmi and against the forceps above. The 

 cavity of the genitalia is exposed. Dorsal proctiger 

 long. Terminalia not rotate. The aedeagus ends in 

 a single prong. Female terminalia remarkably short 

 and high, a little compressed ; the ninth tergite steeply 

 slants downward ; the proctiger has an apical, spinelike 

 process. 



This genus with its accompanying subgenera 

 Lophopeltis Engel and Lophyius Engel constitutes a 

 large, dominant element of the South African fauna. 



Distribution: Ethiopian: Neolophonotus albibarhis 

 Macquart (1848); aWus Loew (1858); amazaenes 

 Walker (1849) ; 5reo«?■^■ Macquart (1838) ; chalcogaster 

 Wiedemann (1819) [ = auribarbis Macquart (1838), 

 phaeax Walker (1849)]; chvMii Bromley (1947); 

 cupreus Loew (1857) ; diihius Bezzi (1892) ; -flavibarbis 

 Macquart (1838) ; foreipatus Macquart (1838) ; geni- 

 culatus Macquart (1838) ; grossms Bromley (1936) 

 hirtipes Ricardo (1920) ; holoxanthus Engel (1927) 

 incisuralw Macquart (1938); ladon Walker (1849) 

 leoniniis Schiner (1867) ; leucopygus Engel (1927) 

 nanus Bezzi (1906) ; orientalis Ricardo (1920) ; porcel- 

 lus Speiser (1910) ; robustus Ricardo (1922) ; rufus 

 Macquart (1838) ; stanmisi Ricardo (1925) ; suillus 

 Fabricius (1805) ; tibialis Macquart (1838) ; ursinus 

 Schiner (1867) ; vansoni Bromley (1936) ; virescens 

 Engel (1927). 



Oriental: Neolophon^tus indicus Bromley (1935). 



Engel (1927) assigned species in the siibgenera 

 Lophopeltis Engel and Lophyhus Engel; I have fol- 

 lowed him and listed the species of these subgenera 

 separate from Neolophonotus Engel. 



Subgenus Lophopeltis Engel 



Figures 307, 2286, 2333, 2368, 2370 



Lophopeltis Engel, Bull. Soc. Ent. Egypte, vol. 8, p. 348, 1925. 

 Type of subgenus : Asllus comatus Weidemann, 1S21, as 

 Lophonotws erythracanthus Hermann, 1907, by original des- 

 ignation. 



Small or medium size flies, very similar to genus 

 Neolophonotus Engel. The face is constructed similar- 

 ly but apt to be shorter. There is generally a mesonotal 



mane present and the flies usually have marginal and 

 discal bristles on the scutellum. It is especially de- 

 fined by the presence of stout bristles on both the ter- 

 gites and stemites and separated from Megadrillus 

 Bigot, which also has such bristles, by the open first 

 posterior cell. The base of the second posterior cell 

 is strongly widened and the posterior crossvein quite 

 long. Length 12 to 20 mm. 



Head, lateral aspect : The head is of moderate length 

 and strongly convex anteriorly ; the face is quite short, 

 nearly plane with the eye throughout most of its length. 

 The proboscis is slender and extended beyond the face, 

 the eye is posteroventrally recessive, beginning at the 

 middle of the head and the occiput bears dense, long, 

 fine, generally wliite pile below. Upper half of occiput 

 with bristles, the more doreal elements exceptionally 

 long and proclinate. 



Head, anterior aspect : The head tends to be nearly 

 circular, with the face narrow and divergent below. 

 The face below the antenna is from a sixth to a seventh 

 the head width. Face micropubescent, except on the 

 cheeks with a dense, medial mane of long, slender 

 bristles extending beyond the proboscis. Antenna as 

 in Neolophonotus. Front flat and divergent with a sub- 

 ocnlar row of bristly hairs. The vertex is narrow, 

 rather deeply excavated behind and the low ocellarimn 

 bears a pair of slender, bristly hairs with another pair 

 behind the ocelli. 



Thorax : The thorax is similar to Neolophonotus. The 

 scutellar margin has 2 or 3 pairs of quite long, basally 

 stout, attenuate bristles and other similar pairs, 3 or 

 more on the disc. In addition both the margin and the 

 lateral portion of the disc may have some tufts of coarse 

 hairs, but less abundant than in Neolophonotus. Mar- 

 gin of scutellum impressed, the metanotal callosity 

 micropubescent and the postmetacoxal area membran- 

 ous. 



Legs: The legs are very similar to Neolophonotus. 



Wings: The second submarginal cell widely flared 

 at apex ; the first posterior cell is widely open, the sec- 

 ond posterior cell strongly expanded anteriorly at its 

 base and at least twice as wide as the end of the discal 

 cell. The posterior crossvein is exceptionally long, 

 nearly paralleling the upper margin of the discal cell. 

 Anterior crossvein oblique, entering the discal cell 

 beyond the middle. Ambient vein complete. 



Abdomen: The abdomen is comparatively slender, 

 subcylindrical, slightly tapered and sometimes a little 

 compressed laterally. The pile is mostly erect and 

 coarse and moderately long, but longer on the first 3 

 tergites, becoming more or less appressed down the 

 middles of the tergites. Sternites with scattered, fine, 

 long pile and a few, stout bristles on the more basal 

 sternites. Sides and subposterior margins of the second 

 to eighth sternites with 1 to 3 pairs of stout, long, con- 

 spicuous, spikelike bristles. Males with eight tergites, 

 the last half as long as the seventh. Females with sis 

 or seven tergites, those beyond incorporated into an 

 elongate, very greatly compressed ovipositor. Male 

 terminalia characteristically elongate, the superior for- 



