74 Phoridae. 



phora, they mav form an angle and thiis be knee-shaped; also this 

 shape is only found in the female; this difference may influence on 

 the shape of the varioiis parts so that f. inst. labriim may be shorter 

 than labium in the male but of the same length in the female. Thorax 

 is rectangular or sometimes nearly quadratic, rarely it is more elong- 

 ated; it is rather high and arched above; prothorax is as iisiial small, 

 but its pleural parts are distinct; behind scutellum a broader or 

 narrower, generally rather broad postscutellum is seen, not unlike 

 an abdominal segment; metathorax is small, metanotum generally 

 not visible above or only towards the sides, but metapleura distinct. 

 The thoracic disc is short-haired and has one or two pairs of dorsocentral 

 bristles behind, most often only one pair; very rarely there are two 

 pairs in the female but only one pair in the male; the hairs between 

 the dorsocentral bristles are sometimes developed to smaller bristles. 

 Scutellum has two or four, in a single case six marginal bristles; 

 when only two bristles present there is always a quite small hair on 

 each side, exterior to the bristles, and it is this hair which may develop 

 to a bristle, so that we get four bristles; the four bristles may be more 

 or less equal, or the outer pair may be smaller, down to diminutive 

 hairs; not rarely the outer bristles are well developed in the female 

 but small in the male. Of bristles I further fmd, as a rule, the following: 

 a humeral bristle on humerus, a posthumeral bristle behind the hu- 

 meral just at the side margin, one or more bristles behind the post- 

 humeral, which are placed just at the margin and may, I think, be 

 notopleural bristles, farther behind and more inwards there is one 

 supraalar bristle and on the postalar callus there is a postalar bristle. 

 In a couple of species (of Aphiochaeta) there is still a bristle present on 

 the disc, this bristle is placed forwards and inwards to the postalar 

 bristle and may, I think, be termed an intraalar bristle, and it is 

 otherwise not developed in the family. On the propleura are small 

 hairs and a row of bristles below, also further upwards or above there 

 are often one or a couple of bristles; for the rest the pleura are gener- 

 ally bare, but in many species the mesopleura have a group of hairs 

 or small bristles above on the anterior plate in front of the suture, 

 these hairs may either be equal in size or one or a couple of them 

 may be developed to larger bristles, sometimes very large. In most 

 species of Hypocera the thorax is somewhat curious, the notopleural 

 suture vanishing anteriorly, and lience the upper part of mesopleura 

 has short hairs like those on the disc. Abdomen varies in shape from 

 short and robust, more or less conical, to somewhat long and more 



