384 Phoridae. 



with short hairs on the sides; below there is a large, yellow, rounded 

 ventral plate; anal tube somewhat small, but stout, yellowish brown 

 €r brown. Legs yellow to brownish yellow or brown, hind femora 

 more or less darkened at the tip, with the hairs below the basal half 

 short or only a little longish; bristles on hind tibiæ numerous, small 

 and hair-like. Wings yellowish to brownish, veins paler or darker 

 brown; costa reaching to the middle or generally beyond, sometimes 

 considerably (to 0,54), 1 about equal to 2 + 3, at most very slightly 

 longer, and 2 about double 3; costal cilia long; fork sometimes some- 

 what long, but varying, the angle not small, but also varying, some- 

 times rather large ; the fourth vein issues generally more or less behind 

 the base of the fork, it is well curved in its first part, for the rest 

 slightly curved. Halteres yellow. 



Female. Similar to the male; the fork often more acute. 



Length 1 — 2 mm. 



According to my experience it is difficult to get a clear idea of 

 this species; I possess a very large material, but the species seems to 

 be very varying; it varies, as said, considerably as regards the relative 

 size of the supraantennal bristles; further it varies in size, and the 

 larger specimens generally have more strongly tinged wings with 

 stronger veins, while the smaller and weaker specimens have clearer 

 wings with finer veins; also the fork varies, as mentioned above, 

 and to a high degree, being shorter or longer and with the angle 

 varying, sometimes almost rectangular, but it is, as far as I can see, 

 not possible, to separate off any species. As said under snbtumida I 

 €annot satisfactorily distinguish the males of that species and the 

 present; pulicaria comes also near to my species similata, and the two 

 species mainly differ only by the hypopygium; it might perhaps be 

 possible that similata only represents a variety of pulicaria. 



A. pulicaria^ as I understand it, is very common in Denmark 

 all over the country and in diff erent localities ; it has been taken from 

 ^V4 — ^7ii; I have taken it in copula on ^^4, ^/e, ^U and Vio. I have 

 specimens bred from a nest of Vespa media from Ruderhegn on 

 ^Vs, from larvæ present in a dead Carabiis hortensis, taken in Hare- 

 skov on ^^/e, they pupated on ^^/e and the imagines emerged on ^^/t, 

 and from decaying larvæ and pupæ of Depressaria nervosa, taken at 

 Gentofte Sø on ^"/s, the imagines emerging on ^^/s (Kryger). 



Geographical distribution: — The species is widely distributed; 

 all Europe, towards the nortli to northernmost Scandinavia; further 

 down into Formosa, in North Africa, on Madeira and the Canaries; 



