Empididae. 33 



dents or bundles of hairs or bristles, or finally the front or hind metatarsi 

 are thickened. The legs are more or less hairy wlth a common 

 clothing; besides there are longer hairs or bristles to a various degree, 

 especially on the hind legs; in the female the legs are either simply 

 haired, or they are all, or more frequently the posterior or hind pair, 

 fringed with scaly hairs. Thin apical spurs or bristles are as a rule 

 present, but they are always small and inconspicuous. There are two 

 claws, two well developed pulvilli and a small, linear, membranous 

 empodium, terminating with a pencil of hairs. Wings sometimes in 

 the female more or less, sometimes much, dilated and of a eurious 

 shape, but not or only slightly so in the male; not rarely they are 

 somewhat darker in the female than in the male, but sometimes on 

 the contrary darkest in the male; the mediastinal vein not reaching 

 the margin; cubital vein unforked and thus one cubital cell; discai 

 vein forked, thus four posterior cells and the discai cell sending three 

 veins to the margin, the third of which is the upper branch of the 

 postical vein which closes the discai cell below; anal vein distinct or 

 weak, reaching the margin or disappearing about in the middle: the 

 second branch of the postical vein recurrent towards the base of the 

 wing and about parallel with the margin; the anal cell shorter than 

 the second basal cell. The discai cell may vary somewhat in shape 

 and size, in some cases it is different in the male and the female, 

 being larger in the latter sex, often very large and produced to the 

 wing-margin. Stigma present, sometimes very weak. Axillary lobe 

 generally well developed. Alula very slightly developed, fringed at 

 the margin. Alar squamulæ roundish, fringed at the margin. — In 

 some few (non Danish) species the wings are somewhat aberrant, 

 without discai cell. 



But few larvæ of species of Rhamphomijia are known. Bouché 

 describes larva and pupa to E. spinipes (Naturgesch. der Ins. 1834, 

 48, Taf. IV, Fig. 26—30) ; Beling (Arch. flir Naturgesch. 48, I, 1882, 

 214 — 17) describes larvæ and pupæ io JR. sulcata, nUidnla and dentipes. 

 The larva of li. platyptera is mentioned by Kleine (Zeitschr. fur 

 Naturwissensch. 1909). The larva is cylindrical, somewhat spindle- 

 shaped, whitish yellow; the body consists, the head included, of 

 twelve segments (Beling says twelve and Brauer says: „Korper mit 

 der Kieferkapsel 12-ringeUg" ; Bouché figures thirteen segments. I 

 have not examined any larva, I think there are twelve segments, but 

 I am not certain). The last segment is somewhat globular with shal- 

 low, longitudinal furrows; on the ventral side of the abdominal seg- 

 ments there are slight, transverse swellings (Kriechschwielen). The 

 larva is amphipneustic with small prothoracic spiracles and larger 



3 



