Sphaerophoria. 351 



the hind tibiæ somewhat darkened ; tarsi more or less darkened, hind 

 tarsi the most. The hairs on anterior femora varying from more or less 

 yellow to almost quite black, on hind femora they are black; the 

 hairs on tibiæ yellow, on hind tibiæ varying to quite black; hind 

 trochanters more hairy than in the foregoing species. Wings somewhat 

 tinged. Squamulæ pale yellow. Halteres yellow. 



Female. Vertex moderately broad, shining æneous, sending a 

 middle stripe down towards the antennæ; the hairs black above, 

 yellow below. Abdomen broader than in the male and less clavate 

 but, however, distinctly so ; it has the basal corners and four arched 

 bands yellow; the first band more or less widely interrupted, the 

 second entire, emarginate or interrupted, the third generally inter- 

 rupted, the fourth interrupted and the inner end of the spots produced 

 slightly forwards and backwards, and the segment with a narrow, 

 orange hind margin; the sixth segment orange with a black basal 

 middle spot and a pair of spots at the hind margin, the spots more 

 or less connected; the bands reach the side margin, the first and 

 second sometimes indistinctly. Venter paler than in the male, quite 

 or almost quite yellow. Legs yellow, only hind tarsi more or less 

 darkened. 



The form now described answers to the var. nitidicollis Zett. ; as 

 seen it varies somewhat with regard to the abdominal markings. 

 Besides nitidicollis there is a var, flavicauda Zett. distinguished by the- 

 legs, also of the male, being all yellow, but this variety I have never 

 seen from Denmark. As to the synonymy of these varieties ^a^'cawc?« 

 was founded by Zetterstedt in 1843 on a single female which seems 

 to be an extreme form, with the abdominal markings small and 

 isolated and, except on third segment, separated and consisting of 

 small spots, and this form has never been mentioned since, except by 

 Verrall, who likewise mentions a single specimen. Zetterstedt described 

 later on, in 1849, the other var., nitidicollis, as a new species (sent 

 him under this name as a new species from Stæger), but the male 

 with yellow legs was not described, I think, until Verrall, or perhaps 

 it was this form, which Schiner had. The faet is thus that Zetter- 

 stedt first described a rare and extreme variety as flavicauda, and 

 later on a more common variety as nitidicollis, while the paler form 

 with yellow legs in both sexes, which seems to be the normal form, 

 remained undescribed for a long time. It is curious that only the 

 var. nitidicollis seems to occur in Denmark, while otherwise the form 

 with yellow legs in both sexes (which may be termed flavicauda, but 

 of which, as said, the specimen described by Zetterstedt was an ex- 

 treme form with small abdominal spots, this variety otherwise having 



