78 Phoridae. 



posterior or posteroventral side of hind metat.arsus ; a similar arrange- 

 ment is generally present on the anterior or anterodorsal side of 

 middle tibiæ on a smaller or larger apical area, and is also often more 

 or less discernible at the end on the anterior side of the front tibiæ. 

 These peculiar combs of special, short and, I think, a little flattened 

 bristles are very characteristic to the family. Sometimes (in species 

 of Aphiochaeta) the hairs below the basal half of hind femora may be 

 more or less elongated in both sexes, or they may be specially devel- 

 oped, stronger and forming a longer or shorter fringe or forming 

 special bristles only at the base, and when thus developed they are 

 present only in the male. The posterior tibiæ have shorter or longer, 

 often rather long apical spiirs, longest on middle tibiæ. Still it is to 

 be mentioned as characteristic that the hairs on the tarsi, especially 

 on the posterior tarsi, form longitudinal hair-seams. Claws and pul- 

 villi small or somewhat small and empodium bristle-shaped; in some 

 species of Paraspiniphora these organs show sexiial dimorphism, 

 they are normal in the male, but in the female they are enlarged, 

 the empodium is hairy below, and the liair above between the claws 

 is long, flattened and band-shaped; the enlargement is most pro- 

 nounced on the anterior tarsi. In Metopina and in several foreign 

 genera the pulvilli are transformed, narrow, with branches below, 

 in other foreign genera both pulvilli and empodium are wanting. 

 Wings with the axillary angle well developed; the venation is rather 

 unique and consists of two thick veins at the front margin, the second 

 of these veins forked at the apex or not; from this latter vein four 

 thin veins issue, going to the apical and hinder margin, all unbranched; 

 costa is short, at most reaching somewhat beyond the middle, stopping 

 at the end of the third vein; the mediastinal vein issnes from the hu- 

 meral cross-vein, it is short and generally ends in the subcostal vein, 

 but sometimes it does not unite with this, but ends freely, and it 

 may be reduced or almost wanting. In a single case, the male of the 

 American genus Ecitomyia Brues, the first or subcostal vein is wanting 

 so that only one thick vein, the cubital or third vein, is present. 

 The venation has been somewhat debated and is not easily under- 

 stood ; all the veins with exception of the mediastinal vein are convex ; 

 I think the following interpretation is at least possible: the vein 

 foUowing the subcostal vein is the cubital vein, it is generally furcated 

 at the end, the inner branch of the fork being the radial vein, for 

 the greater part coalesced with the cubital vein, but the radial vein 

 may sometimes be absent, and then there is no fork; the first thin 



