ROBBER FLIES OF THE "WORLD 



535 



appears black pollinose widely over the middle, when 

 viewed from a posterior angle. Setae of abdomen black 

 but they become yellow laterally on the tergites. 



Type. Male, allotype, female, San Bernardino, Para- 

 guay, collected by Fiebrig. Types in the collection of 

 the Zoologische Staatssammlung, Munich. 



Genus Lycomya Bigot 



FiGUKES 367, 754, 1402, 14U, 1566, 2197, 2289, 2358, 2504 



Lycomya Bigot, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, ser. 3, voL 5, p. 288, 1857. 

 Type of genus: Lycomya gennainii Bigot, 1857, by mono- 



typy. 

 Lycomyia Kertfez, Catalogus dipterorum, vol. 4, 1909. Emenda- 

 tion. 



Large flies with cylindroid, elongate and comparative- 

 ly slender abdomen. The hind femur and tibia are 

 elongate, the femur slightly dilated distally. They are 

 readily recognized by the elongate, third antennal seg- 

 ment which bears only an exceptionally short style. 

 Length 28 mm. 



Head, lateral aspect: The face is extremely short, 

 a little produced on the upper fifth beneath the antenna, 

 a little more strongly produced on the lower fifth, 

 leaving the intervening portion plane, vertical and 

 barely extended beyond the eye margin. Cheeks be- 

 neath the epistoma prominent. The eye is of moderate 

 length, a little more narrow on the ventral half and 

 plane on the posterior margin from the vertex to a 

 point equal to an eighth the distance from its ventral 

 margin. At this point the eye is strongly anteroven- 

 trally recessive. The occiput is very short and concave 

 medially, being produced for a short distance sub- 

 laterally. The posteroventral support for the proboscis 

 forms a conspicuous, posteriorly bulging saddle-like 

 process, wliich bears posterodorsally a wide, V-shaped 

 depression. Pile of occiput rather dense but short and 

 stiff at the bottom of the eyes, being replaced on the 

 lower fourth by numerous, weak bristles, at first dis- 

 posed in 2 rows, and which near the middle of the 

 occiput become 1 row, and dorsally become much stouter 

 but never long. In addition, there is some short, fine 

 pile associated with the bristles. The proboscis is dorso- 

 ventrally depressed, rather wide, with thinned apex 

 and gently swollen towards the base from the dorsal 

 aspect; it is a little more strongly swollen from the 

 lateral view. There is a low, inconspicuous, dorsal ridge 

 occupying the basal fourth, beginning at the end of the 

 basal swelling; apex with a few, short, stiff hairs, the 

 base below with some moderately long, very fine hairs ; 

 proboscis directed obliquely downward. Palpus slen- 

 der, rather short, cylindrical, with numerous, ventral 

 and lateral, bristly hairs and some longer, stiffer bristles 

 at the apex; there is a distinct, pile-bearing trace of 

 the basal segment fused medially, membranous laterally. 

 Antenna attached at the upper fifth of the head. The 

 anteima is elongate and slender ; first segment twice as 

 long as the second. Third segment at least li/^ times as 



long as the first two combined, gently attenuate distally 

 and with a short microsegment carrying a minute spine. 



Head, anterior aspect: The face below antenna is a 

 fifth of head width and rather strongly divergent below. 

 Subepistomal area moderately large, slightly convex 

 with a low, medial, V-shaped depression and strongly 

 oblique. Face micropubescent, but the cheeks pollinose. 

 Face apilose or there may be not over 1 or 2 fine, bristly 

 hairs above the mystax on each side. Mystax composed 

 of long, stout, pale bristles extending in 2 rows across 

 the middle of the epistomal margin, in 1 row down the 

 upper half of the sides of the subepistoma where the 

 bristles may be either black or white. Front very short, 

 pollinose, with a few, minute setae along the eye mar- 

 gin; vertex deeply excavated, but narrow; the ocelli 

 set quite forward, the ocellarium low, with a pair of 

 short, anteriorly curled setae in the middle and 2 short 

 pairs behind the posterior ocelli. Anterior eye facets 

 moderately enlarged. 



Thorax : The thorax is pollinose and feebly shining. 

 Pile of mesonotum very scanty ; there is a row of fine, 

 short, curved, acrostical elements doubled anteriorly; 

 a row of equally short, dorsocentral elements which 

 behind the suture become quite long but very slender, 

 with 10 in each row. Humerus with a few, fine hairs 

 only. In the type of genus the moderately stout, lat- 

 eral bristles consist of 2 notopleural, preceded by 3 

 slender, posthumeral, 2 supraalar, 1 postalar, 2 pairs 

 of scutellar bristles. Scutellum pollinose, moderately 

 thick, convex with distinctly impressed rim and sharp 

 basal crease. Prothorax with abundant, fine pile ven- 

 trally and slightly stiffer pile posterolaterally ; pro- 

 notum with 2 or 3 pairs of bristles. Anterior sterno- 

 pleuron only with a tuft of fine hairs and a few, fine, 

 short hairs posteriorly and dorsally on the mesopleu- 

 ron; hypopleuron with a vertical row of 4 or 5 long, 

 slender, distinct bristles. Metapleuron with a narrow, 

 vertical band of similar bristles or bristly hairs. Ptero- 

 pleuron with 2 or 3 long, bristly hairs and a few, fine 

 hairs. Lateral slopes of the metanotum bullose, with 

 a patch of stiff pile. Metasternum laterally with pile 

 posteriorly. Ventral metasternum chitinized with nu- 

 merous, fine, long hairs. Postmetacoxal area large, long 

 and distinctly membranous; tegula with several setae; 

 posterior basalare with 5 or 6 fine hairs; anterior basal- 

 are pubescent only ; squama with a multiple fringe. 



Legs : Tlie anterior and middle femora are stout with- 

 out being swollen. The hind femur is a fourth longer 

 than the middle femur, its tibia of equal length and it is 

 a little dilated dorsally on the apical half. All the 

 femora have dense, fine, appressed setae dorsally, the 

 tibiae similar, and the lateral pile similar. The follow- 

 ing complement of stout but only moderately long bris- 

 tles present: On the hind femur 2 lateral at the the 

 middle and distal third with 1 fine, additional basal 

 bristle; no ventrolateral elements, but 2 prominent ven- 

 tromedial at the middle of the basal fourth, and 2 other 

 basal, much finer, shorter bristles; also 1 prominent 



