Brachycoma. 217 



The species live as larvæ in nests of Bomhus and Vespa where 

 they feed upon the food for the bee-larvæ and perhaps also attack 

 and eat the larvæ. 



Of the genus two or three European species are known, one 

 occurring in Denmark. 



1. B. devia Fall. 



1820. Fall. Dipt. Suec. Muse. 6, 8 (Tachina). — 1824. Meig. Syst. Beschr. 

 IV, 301, 108. (Tachina) — 1838. Zett. Ins. Lapp. 634, 4 et 1844. Dipt. Scand. 

 III, 1023, 12 et 1855, XII, 4688, 12 et 1859. XIII, 6076, 12 (Tachina). — 1862. 

 Schin. F. A. I, 477 (Tachina). — 1889. B. B. Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien, 

 LVI, 121, Tab. VII, Fig. 173. — 1907. Kat. palåarkt. Dipt. III, 502. — 1924. 

 Stein, Arch. f. Naturgesch. 90, 6, 206. — Meigenia hombivora v. d. Wulp, 

 1869. Ent. Tijdschr. 2, IV, 142, 187, Tab. IV, Fig. 3—5. — 1891. B. B. 1. c. 

 LVIII, 424. — Oppia ciligera E. D. 1863. Posth. II, 406, 1. — 1895. Pand. Rev. 

 Entom. XIV, 303, 2 (Metopia). — 1900. Villen. Bull. Soc. Ent. de Fr. 402 et 

 1907. Ann. Soc. Ent. de Fr. LXXVI, 382 (Metopia). 



Male. Frons above about two thirds of the breadth of the eye^ 

 somewhat protruding. Orbits and cheeks greyish white, black in 

 some views; jowls grey; frontal stripe black, seen from in front 

 whitish. Orbits and cheeks with black hairs, downwards on the 

 cheeks forming a single row; jowls with longish black hairs. Occiput 

 grey, with black hairs. Antennæ black, somewhat broad; arista 

 thickened in fully the basal third, slightly pubescent. Palpi black 

 or blackish. Thorax bluish grey pruinose, with three broad black 

 stripes, and just outwards to the median a pair of thin stripes, ab- 

 breviated just behind the suture. Thorax black-haired. Abdomen 

 black, the three last segments whitish grey pruinose on front part^ 

 shifting to dark according to view, leaving a middle line and hind 

 margins black, the latter are undulate as they are semicircularly 

 widened on each side, but narrowed in the middle and at the margins. 

 Abdomen black-haired, with marginal bristles, none on second seg- 

 ment, a pair on third and a row on fourth; the præhypopygial seg- 

 ment with two rows of bristles. Legs black. Wings somewhat greyish 

 brown tinged; veins black; apical cross-vein bending outwards above 

 the angle; subcostal vein with small bristles on apical part or bare. 

 Squamulæ white. Halteres blackish brown. 



Female. Similar; frons as broad or fully as broad as the eye. 



Length 6 — 8,5 mm. 



B. devia seems to be somewhat rare in Denmark; Ordrup, 

 Dyrehaven, Søllerød, Hillerød, Jægerspris, Rørvig, Jyderup and in 



