548 Tachinidae. 



Musca lateralis Fall. 1816. Vet. Acad. Handl. 243 et 1820. Dipt. Suec. Muse. 

 42, 11. — Musca nigrina Fall. 1816. 1. c. 243 et 1821. 1. c. 42, 12. 



Male. Frons above about half as broad as the eye or a little 

 broader, widening downwards. Head silvery; frontal stripe velvet 

 black or brownish black. Orbits with small hairs along the bristles; 

 jowls with hairs only below. Occiput grey, with yellowish hairs. 

 Antennæ black; arista plumose; second antennal joint almost trian- 

 gular. Palpi yellow. Thorax blackish, greyish pruinose, most denscly 

 at the sides, with four black stripes, the median narrow, distant, 

 abbreviated behind, the lateral interrupted at the suture. Scutellum 

 black, or more or less reddish on apical part. Thorax black-haired. 

 Abdomen black, more or less translucently reddish at the sides, 

 sometimes almost not; the three last segments with a broad, greyish 

 or yellowish grey pruinose front band, interrupted in the middle and 

 shifting to dark according to view. Abdomen is black-haired, with 

 long discai and marginal bristles, on second segment a pair of mar- 

 ginal, on third a pair of discai and marginal and on fourth a pair of 

 discai and a row^ of marginal; fifth segment with a row of discai and 

 marginal bristles; not rarely more bristles develop so that there may 

 be a more or less complete row^ of marginal on third and of discai 

 on fourth segment. Upper forceps narrow, curved forwards, cleft at 

 the end; arms of lower forceps elongated triangular, obtuse at apex, as 

 long as upper forceps. Fifth sternite narrowly cleft to nearbase. Legs 

 black, with long bristles. Wings somewhat brownish tinged; veins 

 brown ; subcostal vein with bristles on basal half or in whole length, 

 and sometimes also with bristles on underside. Squamulæ yellowish. 

 Halteres yellowish brown. 



Female. Similar; frons broader. Abdomen without reddish sides; 

 the last segment often seen as a downwards protruding, elongated 

 triangular pointed process. 



Length 8 — 11 mm. 



T. nigripes is common in Denmark in suitable localities all 

 over the country; it occurs in low herbage and on bushes at and in 

 woods, often in luxuriant vegetation near water; the dates are ^^/s — ^/g. 

 I have taken it in copula on ^V?- One of my specimens is bred from a 

 pupa found in flood refuse on ^^/g, it developed on '/g, other specimens 

 are bred from Dianthoecia capsincola on ^/g, from D. carpophaga and 

 Lasiocampa trifolii, the latter hitherto not known as host for it. The 

 species is otherwise known from a number of Sphingidae and various 

 other Heterocera. 



