74 Orthorrhapha brachycera. 



middle coxse have more numerous and stronger bristles than in 

 Falleni, and they are blackish haired anteriorly. The legs otherwise 

 with short, black hairs; the posterior femora with longer, fine, yel- 

 lowish hairs below, especially at the base, and each with a preapical 

 bristle; front tibiæ with rows of bristles on the dorsal, posterior and 

 postero-ventral side; middle tibiæ with about six antero-dorsal, two 

 postero-dorsal bristles, one dorsal above and one ventral below the 

 middle; hind tibiæ with an antero- and postero-dorsal row, one dorsal 

 bristle above and one ventral below the middle, and besides with a 

 ventral row of fine bristles; hind metatarsi with three bristles above 

 and some on the anterior side; the posterior metatarsi distinctly 

 spinulous below, and also the front metatarsi finely spinulous. Wings 

 hyaline; veins blackish brown, costa with a small, black sweUing; 

 discai vein obtusely, and not angularly bent; axillary lobe rather well 

 developed, anal vein going more downwards than forwards. Squamulæ 

 yellow, with a black fringe. Halteres yellow. 



Female. Epistoma broad, grey, The third antennal joint shorter 

 than in the male, not longer than broad. Wings more or less yel- 

 lowish, no costal swelling. 



Length 5—5,5 mm. 



The species is similar to Falleni, but it is in the male easily 

 distinguished by the shape of the front tarsi and the length of the 

 middle tarsi; in the female it is distinguished by the shorter front 

 tarsi, and in both sexes the pale-haired anterior coxæ with few bristles 

 in Falleni and the blackish-haired, more bristly in Meigenii are good 

 characters, as also the five antero-dorsal bristles on the middle tibiæ 

 in Falleni in contrast to the six in Meigenii seem to be constant. 

 I think also the characters given by Loew (1. c. V, 1 1) viz. the more 

 whitish pruinose coxæ and longer-haired eyes in Falleni hold good; 

 when Loew says, that the dark colour on the front metatarsi in 

 Falleni reaches nearer to the apex than in Meigenii, I have not 

 found this confirmed, but as the metatarsus is longer in Falleni than 

 in Meigenii, the black coloured part is naturally longer in the former 

 than in the latter. Schiner's descriptions are somewhat confused, 

 what he says about the colour of the front tarsi is not correct, and 

 when he says about Meigenii, that the wing has no costal swelling, 

 this is also erroneous. 



D. Meigenii is rare in Denmark, as it has only been taken on 

 one locality, at Lersøen, by Stæger many years ago ; the author notes 

 (1. c. 29), that it was common in the meadows at Lersøen, but as 

 already remarked, he mixed together this and the foregoing species. 



Geographical distribution: — Northern and middle Europe down 



