Platypeza. 29 



1. P. modesta Zett. 



1844. Zett. Dipt. Scand. III, 903, 4. — 1901. Verr. Brit. FL VIII, 41, 2, 

 figs. 56, 62—63. — 1907. Kat. palåarkt. Dipt. III, 188. — 1910. Walilgr. 

 Entom. Tidsskr. 234, 2. 



Male. Vertex black, frons and face greyish pruinose. Frons 

 very broad, with only a few minute hairs just above; face much 

 broader than high; jowls with short black hairs, stretching up on 

 the cheeks, but here being shorter and vanishing before the antennæ. 

 Occiput blackish grey, with black hairs; postocular cilia short. An- 

 tennæ black, basal joints pale. Palpi yellow. Thorax velvet black 

 or brownish black, behind and on scutellum not velvet 

 and more greyish or brownish; sometimes there are P| 



three narrow paler lines, separating four broad black 

 stripes, and still a black spot on each side, but generally 

 thorax is quite black. Two notopleural bristles. Pleura 

 greyish. Abdomen velvet black, on basal part somewhat 

 translucently brownish and down the sides yellowish 

 brown or yellow; venter yellow\ Abdomen has erect hairs, 

 yellow for the most part, but black towards apex, strong 

 on sixth segment. The præhypopygial segment yellowish; 

 hypopygium grey. Legs yellowish, or yellowish brown, 

 especially on anterior femora and tip half of hind femora, 

 tarsi more or less darkened towards end; hind tibiæ and 

 the four first tarsal joints moderately dilated, meta- Fig 5. 

 tarsus the longest joint, one and a half times as long as S.modestaS , 

 second joint. The legs have short black hairs, front "^ ^f 

 femora long hairs on posterior side and middle femora 

 likewise; the hind femora have long yellow hairs above and a row 

 of bristly hairs below^ in about basal half. Wings more or less yellow, 

 saturated in third costal segment; veins blackish brown; middle 

 cross-vein long before tip of mediastinal vein, the lower branch 

 of the fork not quite complete; anal cell scarcely as long as the rest 

 of the anal vein. Squamulæ brown. H alteres yellowish. 



Female. Rather different. Frons broad, grey, with scattered 

 minute hairs. Thorax grey or brownish grey with three narrow, brown 

 stripes. Abdomen grey, on second to fifth segment with a black 

 band or broad triangular spot with the apex forwards, and the spots 

 sometimes continuous along the middle line; abdomen short-haired 

 except longer yellow hairs at base. Legs yellow or a little brownish 

 as in male; hind tibiæ and tarsi dilated as in male; the legs short- 



