This little genus is readily distinguished from all other Syr- 

 phidge by the long narrow clavate abdomen. Meigen gives a 

 figure of the head of a male with the eyes contiguous, but I 

 have never seen that sex, which is remarkable, and it proves 

 the rarity of the males, whilst the females are by no means 

 uncommon. 



Whether all the species described by Meigen be distinct I 

 am unable to determine ; the essential differences are slight, 

 and there seems to be intermediate varieties; even the speci- 

 men figured does not agree very well with that part of his de- 

 scription relating to the dusky transverse nervures ; yet it can- 

 not be the B. sadellata, which I first took it for, because 

 Meigen only mentions yellow abdominal bands on the 4th 

 and 5th segments. The following are recorded as British, 

 but I possess only 3 of them. 



1. elongata Fab.— Curt. Brit. En-f. pi. 7S7 ? ? 



Taken in the vicinity of London, as well as Numbers 2, 3, 

 and 6. 



2. scutellata Meig. 3. 198. 2. Length, 5 lines. 



Obscure aeneous : scutel chalybeous ;a bdomen with a 

 yellow fascia on the 4th and sometimes 2 dots on the 5th 

 segments ; antennae, stigma and transverse nervures fuscous. 



3. sphegina Meig. 198. 3. Length 41 lines. 



" Obscure aeneous ; scutel of the same colour ; abdomen 

 with 2 yellow bands ; antennae rufous ; wings immaculate." 



4. obscuripennis Meig. 199. 4. Length 4 lines. 



Obscure aeneous; antennae fuscous; abdomen with 2 ru- 

 fous bands, wings brownish. 



June, banks, Bromley ; 9th July, under Turk mountain, 

 Killarney. 



5. tabida Meig. 199. 5. Length 4 lines. 



Obscure aeneous, scutel chalybeous: abdomen with 2 yel- 

 low bands ; stigma and transverse nervures fuscous ; head 

 black ; antennae rufous. 



Middle of June, Knaresborough, hovering about flowersjn 

 shady places; Bury, Lancashire, Mr. L Hutchinson. 



6. nigripennis Meig. 200. 7. — perexilis Harr. Expo, pi, 24. 

 /24. 



" Length 3 lines, ^neous, abdomen with a yellow fascia ; 



posterior legs fuscous ; wings blackish with a fuscous stigma." 



In Stephens' systematic Catalogue Moses Harris's figure 



is referred to B. obscuripennis, but it cannot belong to that 



species, as the legs are reddish yellow, whereas Harris says 



the legs were black in his specimen. 



The plant is Agrostis vulgaris^ Fine Bent-grass. 



