460 Syrphidae. 



species, but diffeiing by the same characters as in the male viz. the 

 more produced epistoma, no blacic hairs behind the upper eye-margin 

 and the blackish apex of front tibiæ; the grey lunule on first ab- 

 dominal segments is broadly divided. I find the anterior femora yellow 

 on more than the apical half until the two thirds as in versicolor, and 

 also the hind femora have at least the apical third yellow. 



Length about 10 mm. 



I have examined the same Danish specimens as mentioned by 

 Verrall and Becker; the specimen mentioned by Becker with yellow 

 femora is not mature. 



H. consimilis is very rare in Denmark, we have only three speci- 

 mens, all females, tvi^o taken at Hellebæk and one in Jutland at 

 Horsens, the latter on ^^h. 



Geographical distribution : — Southern Sweden , Finland and 

 Denmark. 



Remarks: The three species f rutetorum, versicolor and consimilis 

 are very similar and nearly allied; they form a separate group (or 

 subgenus, Parhelophilus Girschner) ; frufetorurn and versicolor are 

 distinguished without difficulty, in the male by the secondary sexual 

 character on the hind femora and by the differently marked abdomen, 

 and in both sexes by the presence or want of black hairs behind the 

 upper eye-margin ; consimilis is in the male distinguished by the want 

 of any sexual ornamentation on the hind femora, and in both sexes 

 by the epistoma being a little more protruding and by the black apex 

 on front tibiæ. The character from the divided grey lunule on first 

 abdominal segment is, I think, not very valid, for, as seen from my 

 desci'iptions, a division may be indicated or present also in the other 

 species; in consimilis the lunule seems, however, to be more broadly 

 divided. With regard to the hind femora of the male of consimilis 

 Verrall says : "a faint trace of a tuft beneath the hind femora" ; Frey 

 says that there is "keine, keineswegs eine auffallende Behaarung an 

 den Hinterschenkeln, hochstens eine Gruppe åusserst kurzer Haare 



an der Basis derselben" ; Becker describes " zeigen an den 



Schenkelvvurzel auf der Unterseite einen runden dunklen Flecken, der 

 sich bei genauerer Besichtigung als mit ganz kurzen schwarzen Hårchen 

 besetzt darstellt, aber ohne eine warzenformige Erhohung", and he 

 says that it is also present in the female ; this latter statement proves 

 that what Becker mentions here is the curiously haired round spot 

 present at the base belovv on the anterior side in both sexes of all 

 species of Helophilus (and Eristalis and other Syrphids) and for the 

 rest also present on the anterior femora, and this spot has nothing 

 to do with the sexual ornamentation ; perhaps it is the same which 



