Aphiochaeta. 211 



especially of those of Strobl, I have not been able to include, as they 

 are not sufficiently characterized. Wood, as well known, divided 

 Aphiochaeta (his Group II) into sections A, B, C and D; the first 

 section does not come in qiiestion here as it only includes Pseudacteon 

 formicarimi; section B was characterized by four or more scutellar 

 bristles; section C and D with two scutellar bristles were separated 

 by C having a long costa, D a short one. For further grouping he 

 divided C into a group with short costal cilia and into one with long 

 costal cilia; section D with the short costa he likewise divided into 

 two groups, but not using here the costal cilia, but the relative length 

 of the costal divisions, the first group having 1 at least l^U times as 

 long as 2 + 3, the second group having 1 shorter. Later on, in "Supple- 

 mentary notes" (Ent. Month. Mag. 2, XXII, 1912, 173) he gave a 

 table with another grouping, dividing primarily after the costal cilia, 

 so that here a section C is characterized by short costal ciHa, and a 

 section D by long costal cilia. I am of the same opinion as Schmitz 

 that this latter table is less good than his former. The characters taken 

 from the length of costa and of costal cilia are of course not absolute, 

 as species occur which stand intermediate in these characters or 

 vary with regard to them individually or sexually, but it is not possible 

 to look away from these characters, they are quite necessary and also 

 upon the whole rather useful. I have, however, preferred another way 

 of grouping; after separating the group with more than two scutellar 

 bristles I characterize my other primary divisions by the mesopleura 

 being bristly or bare, and if bristly by the bristles being uniform or 

 being unequal with one or more longer bristles in connection with 

 the short ; for the further grouping I then make use first of the length 

 of costa and next of the costal cilia. It is not so that I think the 

 grouping according to the bristles on pleura to be more natural, 

 but it has the adventage, that these characters are rather absolute 

 and prevent mistakes as to the primary divisions^, what is, I think 



black, and costa 0,45; it will tluis (costal cilia taken as short) in my group 

 VI come under No. 10; offuscata has the frons slightly broader than high, 

 duU, costa 0,46 — 0,46, cilia between short and long and balteres dark yellow 

 to brownish. — Otherwise my tables include, I think, the species published 

 to the end of 1921. 

 1 As to one species with bristly pleura, A. conformis, it is, to be sure, recorded 

 that individuals occur with bare pleura; I have examined many specimens 

 of this species, and they had always bristles on pleura; supposed that indivi- 

 duals without bristles really belong to this species I should be inclined to 

 consider them as quite abnormal aberrations. 



14* 



