KOBBER FLIES OF THE WORLD 



553 



patch of stiff, long pile; pteropleuron with a large, 

 oval patch of long bristles, some of which are quite 

 stout; metapleuron with a wide, vertical band of very 

 stout bristles; posthypopleuron with 2 long, stout 

 bristles and several long, slender hairs and a well dif- 

 ferentiated patch of pubescence; metanotal slope bul- 

 lose, medially creased with a dense tuft of stiff, bristly 

 pile ; lateral and ventral metastemum with dense, long 

 pile; postmetacoxal area membranous; tegula with a 

 few, short, medial hairs; posterior basalare with a 

 dense tuft of long, slender bristles; anterior basalare 

 with dense cover of stiff pile ; squama with a multiple 

 fringe. 



Legs : The femora are relatively slender, middle and 

 hind pairs slightly thickened toward base; all pile 

 and bristles black, except setae brushes. The hind 

 femur bears dense, appressed setae with a few, fine, 

 erect hairs below, a pair of stout, moderately long, black 

 bristles doreally some distance back from the apex and 

 a single, equally long, stout bristle ventrolaterally near 

 the apical third. The hind tibia bears 3 stout, long, 

 oblique, dorsal bristles, 1 slender dorsomedial at the 

 middle, 1 stout ventral at the apical fifth ; apex with 1 

 dorsolateral, 3 ventral bristles. Hind basitarsus about 

 as long as remaining segments. Middle femur with 4 

 stout, rather long, anterior bristles, 2 stout, anteroven- 

 tral bristles located near the middle, 5 ventral on the 

 basal half, and a single posteroapical bristle. The 

 middle tibia bears appressed setae and, with one excep- 

 tion, extremely slender delicate bristles — i anterior, 2 

 or 3 posterior, 5 or 6 ventral, and ventrally at the outer 

 sixth it has a very strong, oblique, rather long bristle ; 

 apex with 1 posterodorsal and 4 ventral. Anterior 

 femur with 6 moderately stout, ventral elements on the 

 basal half; its tibia has 2 dorsal, 1 basal and 1 medial, 

 and 2 quite long, stout, oblique posterior bristles, 1 at 

 the middle and 1 beyond; apex with 2 doi-sal, 1 pos- 

 terior, and 4 ventral bristles. Both anterior and pos- 

 terior tibiae and their first two tarsal segments have a 

 dense, appressed brush of yellowish brown setae. All 

 tarsi end in long, truncate, densely pilose pulvilli and 

 stout empodium ; claws only moderately sharp, straight 

 dorsally, sharply curved apically. 



Wings: The wings are a little wider towards the 

 base, subhyaline, with the basal tliird of the wings of 

 the males opaque white ; the marginal cell closed with a 

 stalk. The anterior branch of the third vein ends be- 

 fore the wing apex ; the second submarginal cell is nar- 

 rowed from behind; first posterior cell narrowed im- 

 mediately beyond the discal cell. Fourth posterior cell 

 closed with a long stalk, its apex quite convex ; second 

 basal cell closed with three veins but the middle vein 

 quite short; anal cell closed with a stalk; alula large, 

 ambient vein complete. 



Abdomen: The abdomen is as long as wings and 

 cylindroid, only slightly tapered in both sexes; in the 

 female it is scarcely noticeable imtil the end of the fifth 

 or sixth tergite. The first tergite is rather strongly 

 ridged, convex and swollen. Eight tergites are present 



535914— 62— pt. 2 9 



in the male, the last is barely more than half as long as 

 the seventh. Female with seven tergites, the eighth in- 

 corporated in the ovipositor. The pile of the abdomen 

 is rather dense, long and fine on the sides of the first to 

 third tergites in the male and on the first tergite in the 

 female. All other pile is dense, fine and appressed 

 setate. The sternites, the first excepted, bear scanty, 

 fine pile. The first tergite has 2 very stout, black 

 bristles, no others in the female, but the third tergite 

 in the male bears a lateral patch of 9 stout, black 

 bristles. The fourth tergite bears 2 pairs ; the fifth and 

 sixth each have 2 pairs of unusually stout, divergent, 

 downwardly directed, almost spinelike bristles; stern- 

 ites lack bristles. Male terminalia large, elongate, not 

 rotate. The hypandrimn has a V-shaped cleft to its 

 base and replaced medially by membrane. Female 

 terminalia short, more or less conical, approximately of 

 equal width laterally and dorsally, no spines present; 

 the ninth tergite is extremely short and the tenth is 

 twice as long as the ninth. 



Distribution: Australian: Amphiscolops areolatus 

 Walker (1861) ; areolaris Walker (1860) ; mendax 

 Walker (1857) ; nigritulus Wulp (1872). 



Genus Sdlpnogaster Loew 



Figures 356, 762, 1530, 1539, 2268, 2332, 2376, 2383 



Stilpnogaster Loew, Linnaea Entomologica, vol. 4, p. 82, 1849. 

 Type of genus : Asilus aemulus Meigen, 1820, by monotypy. 



Flies of less than medium size. Related to Rkadiur- 

 gus Loew and like it with a large, rounded, domelike 

 facial gibbosity and short antennal style but distin- 

 guished by the presence of distinct, moderately stout 

 tergal bristles, and long, stout, hypopleural bristles. In 

 the females the ovipositor is short but strongly com- 

 pressed laterally. Length 16 mm. 



Head, lateral aspect: The face is slightly produced 

 on the upper third beneath the antenna; below tlais 

 point it rapidly rises to a low, but conspicuous, rounded 

 gibbosity. Eyes unusually long, recessed anteriorly on 

 the lower posterior third. The occiput is moderately 

 thick and continuing undiminished to the vertex; the 

 pile is scanty above but the lower occipital pile is abun- 

 dant, long and curled ; bristles begin below the middle 

 of the head in profile and consist of about 18 on each 

 side with a cluster of exceptionally stout, short bristles 

 placed laterally behind the vertex and the upper eye 

 corner which contains about 14 bristles. Proboscis 

 rather small, cylindrical and obtuse; the apex bears stiff 

 pile at the tip and below and a number of long, stiff 

 hairs on the ventral half ; the dorsal ridge is high ; from 

 a dorsal view the proboscis is expanded towards the 

 base and the whole directed obliquely downward. 

 Palpus of one segment with a few stiff hairs at the apex. 

 The antenna is attached at the upper third of the head 

 and of moderate length and slender; the first segment 

 is twice as long as the second, the second segment short 

 and beadlike. The third segment is widest at the base 



