ROBBER FLIES OF THE WORLD 



593 



Distribution: Palaearctic : Orophohis tnandarinus 

 Bromley (1928) ; sinensis Ricardo (1919) ; yen-pingensis 

 Bromley (1928). 



Oriental: Ovofhotus chry so g aster Becker (1925); 

 fulvidus Becker (1925) ; montanus Ricardo (1922) ; 

 univittatus Becker (1925). 



Genn8 Strophipogon IIuU 



FiGUBES 384, 785, 1551, 1559, 2180, 2241 



Strophipogon Hull, Bull. Brooklyn But. Soc, vol. 53, no. 4, p. 94, 

 1958. Type of genus: Strophipogon hromlcyi Hull, by 

 original designation. 



Flies of medium size, characterized by the quite nar- 

 row face, the remarkable antenna in which the third 

 antennal segment is exceptionally slender and long and 

 with a very short style. The tibial bristles are reduced 

 and the wing has the posterior branch of the third vein 

 strongly undulate or wavy. Length 15 nmi. 



Head, lateral aspect: The head is comparatively 

 short and convex anteriorly, although the medial por- 

 tion of the eye is rather flattened. The face is plane 

 with the eye except on the lower third, which extends 

 a little forward but is mostly evident because of the 

 ventral recession of the eye. Cheeks are short. Occi- 

 put very poorly developed in profile with scattered, 

 coarse hairs below and slender, bristly hairs along the 

 middle and 2 or 3 quite weak, proclinate bristles behind 

 each upper eye corner. Proboscis comparatively 

 slender, extending well beyond the face and held ob- 

 liquely downward. The palpus is minute, slender, and 

 cylindrical, with a few, bristly hairs at the apex. The 

 antenna set near the upper fourth of the head but actu- 

 ally quite close to the vertex, since the eye rises promi- 

 nently above the ocelli. The first segment is slender, 

 not quite twice as long as the second, and both of these 

 segments bear short setae above and long setae below. 

 The third segment at its base is slightly more narrow 

 than the second segment, it is gradually reduced in 

 width near the base, is of uniform width over most of 

 its length and on the outer fourth becomes even more 

 narrow and only about twice as wide as the very short 

 style. The third segment, style included, is at least 

 tltree times the combined length of the first two, the 

 style bears at the base a small microsegment and at the 

 apex a short bristle. 



Head, anterior aspect: The width of the head is 

 about 11/^ times the height. The face below the an- 

 tenna is exceptionally narrow and approximately a 

 twelfth the head width. Ventrally the face is strongly 

 widened, still wider at the bottom of the subepistoma. 

 The surface has coarse, appressed, flattened micropu- 

 bescence. It is without pile and the mystax is com- 

 posed of a lateral, vertical row of 4 quite slender, long 

 bristles besides 2 or 3 equally long hairs extending 

 down beside the subepistoma. In the middle the face 

 gibbosity bears about 10 rather stouter, equally long, 

 whitish bristles. The very small, short front is red- 

 dish pollinose, very slightly wider than the upper face ; 



the anterior portion of the vertex is slightl}' narrowed 

 and becomes more widely divergent behind, and also 

 more deeply excavated. The small, low ocellarium is 

 set rather far foi-ward and bears behind the ocelli a 

 pair of small, erect setae. Anterior eye facets strongly 

 enlarged along the facial margin. 



Thorax : The thorax is high and rather short, the 

 mesonotum is comparatively high and arched, abrupt 

 and convex anteriorly, and more gently arched behind. 

 It is almost bare, with a patch of 10 or 12 fine, acrosti- 

 cal hairs and with dorsocentral bristles well devel- 

 oped in the middle of the mesonotum. Each row con- 

 tains 4 or 5 bristles, mostly long and slender. Tlie 

 lateral bristles are stouter, quite long, finely attenuate. 

 The notopleuron bears 2 bristles ; there are 4 supraalar, 

 2 on the postal ar callosity, with the posterior element 

 especially conspicuous, and 1 long, conspicuous pair on 

 the scutellar margin. The scutellum is only mod- 

 erately thick, posteriorly convex with impressed rim. 

 Lateral metanotal callosity emarginate behind and 

 bearing bristly pile. Propleuron with slender bristles. 

 The mesopleuron, however, with a few fine, posterior 

 hairs, the pteropleuron with some bristly pile, the 

 metapleuron with a vertical row of 5 or 6 slender, pale 

 bristles, some bristly hairs in front and a single sim- 

 ilar bristle on the hypopleuron, another on the poste- 

 rior coxa. The postmetacoxal area is membranous, 

 the lateral and ventral metasternum long pilose, the 

 prosternum fused laterally. 



Legs: The anterior and middle femora are slightly 

 swollen along the base and before the middle. The hind 

 femur is stout, especially beyond the middle, which is 

 a little dorsally swollen, with the lower surface plane. 

 The femora bear fine, subappressed setae and rather 

 conspicuous bristles. The hind femur has 5 dorsolateral 

 bristles, with the last distal element subapical and 

 matched by a dorsomedial bristle. It also has 4 ventral 

 bristles, 3 of which are stout, and 2 or 3 ventral medial 

 bristles with the middle element stout. Hind tibia quite 

 slender and long, with a conspicuous, stout, basal, dor- 

 solateral bristle; thera is another bristle beyond the 

 middle and another ventrolateral on the apical fourth ; 

 it has only 1 or 2 weak dorsomedial bristles but the 

 medial brush of setae extends nearly to the base ; apex 

 with only 3 or 4 bristles. Middle femur with 4 quite 

 stout, anterior bristles, 9 conspicuous and stout, antero- 

 ventral bristles, longer on the basal half, and 3 or 4 

 stout ventral bristles on the basal half. Posteriorly 

 there are 1 or 2 short bristles on the outer half. Middle 

 tibia with only 2 stout bristles ; these are short, ventral 

 and distal, although at the apex posteriorly there is a 

 conspicuous, long bristle, besides other shorter bristles. 

 Anterior femur with conspicuous bristles only on the 

 ventral surface. There are 5 or 6 such on the basal half. 

 Anterior tibia bears at the base a short, anterodorsal 

 bristle, at the middle an equally weak, posterodorsal 

 bristle and before the middle there is a remarkably 

 long, moderately stout, posteroventral bristle, which 

 though rising almost at the basal third extends oblique- 

 ly to the apex of the tibia. There is a shorter bristle 



530914— 62— pt. 



-12 



