24 Orthorrhapha brachycera. 



Geographical distribution: — The species is only known from 

 middle Sweden to northern Germany, and in" England. 



2. B. spuria Fall. 



1816. Fall. Dipt. Suec. Emp. 33, 43 (Empis). — 1842. Zett. Dipt. 

 Scand. 1, 329, 1 (Cyrtoma). — 1862, Schin. F. A. 1, 76 iCyrtoma). — 

 1903. Kat. palaarkt. Dipt. II, 221. — Cyrtoma atra: 1824. Meig. Syst. 

 Beschr. IV, 2, 1. — Cyrtoma sulcata: 1842. Zett. Dipt. Scand. I, 331,3. — 

 Bicellaria sulcata: 1903. Kat. palaarkt. Dipt. II, 221. 



Male. Epistoma grey; occiput dark grey with black hairs. An- 

 tennæ black. Thorax high, but not so high as in nielaetia, somewhat 

 velvet black, but however slightly shining, with some traces of more 

 shining stripes in the middle. Acrostichal and dorsocentral bristles 

 black, of some length, the hindmost dorsocentral bristles longer. Scu- 

 tellum somewhat greyish ; notopleural, postalar and scutellar marginal 

 bristles black. Pleura dark grey. Abdomen velvet black; venter dark 

 grey. Abdomen is clothed with long, black hairs, longest and erect 

 at the sides; venter with longish, black hairs. Legs somewhat short, 

 black, sometimes brownish black; the hind tibiæ slightly and evenly 

 thickened towards the tip, hind tarsi simple. Femora with dorsal 

 and ventral rows of middle-long hairs, those on ttie hind femora 

 longest, but they are scarcely as long as the femora are broad; tibiæ 

 with similar hairs which are longest and strongest on the dorsal side 

 of the hind tibiæ; all tibiæ with some stronger bristles on the dorsal 

 side. Tarsi short haired. All hairs black or blackish. The usual, 

 short, dense, red pubescence is present on the ventral side of the front 

 tibiæ and apically on the hind tibiæ. Wings blackish tinged, most 

 towards the anterior margin, and this more saturated part is sharply 

 bounded by a line stretching above the cubital vein, about parallel 

 to it; the wings are somewhat strongly metallic iridescent, Veins 

 black or blackish, the discai vein thin but distinct, the fork often in- 

 complete, the upper branch interrupted at the base. The apical part 

 of the mediastinal cell blackish brown but little conspicuous. Halteres 

 black or brownish black. 



Female. Thorax not velvet, but blackish æneous, shining. Abdomen 

 more greyish æneous, slightly shining, shorter haired than in the 

 male. Wings about as in the male, only very little less tinged. 



Length 2,7—3,5 mm. 



This species is easily distinguished from melaena by the not quite 

 simple hind tibiæ and the longer-haired legs ; also the hairs on the 

 thoracic disc are longer. The female differs by having the tinged wings 

 with the apical part of the mediastinal cell distinctly coloured, and by the 



