1807.] 225 



quite reach the posterior margin of the wing, about the last quarter of what would 

 be its full extent being obliterated. The wing itself is considerably narrower than 

 in Chr. ccecutiens, the anal angle being rounded ofP so that the posterior margin is 

 more nearly parallel to the anterior. But it is on examining the face and cheeks in 

 these specimens that the greatest difference fi'om Chr. ccecutiens is seen. 



In the three recognised British species of Chrysops there is on each side of the 

 face below the antenna a shining black tubercle, which may or may not be united 

 below with its fellow of the opposite side, but which is, in any case, separated by a 

 vertical patch of yellow pollen from a small shining black fleck on the cheek {i. e., 

 the space beneath the eye) ; the posterior margin of the cheek is also clothed with 

 yellow pollgn, so that the cheek-fleck is still further defined, and in fact, is often 

 entirely surrounded by pollen. In the two male specimens which we are examining, 

 however, the face and cheeks are wholly shining black and entirely devoid of poUinose 

 markings, the facial tubercles being continuous with the tumid cheeks. 



There seems little doubt that these specimens (for which the Museum is indebted 

 to Captain Savile Reid, wlio took them on Studland Heath, near Swanage, Dorset, 

 on August 8th, 1895) belong to Chrysops se^w^cra^js. Fab., which consequently must 

 be added to the British List. They work out as C. sepulcralis both with Schiner's 

 table ("Fauna Austriaca," Diptera, I, pp. 40,41), and also with that given byLoew 

 (p. 615) in his paper, entitled, " Versuch einer Auseinandersetzung der europaischen 

 Chrysops-Arten " (Verhandlungen der k.-k. zoologisch-botanischen Gesellscliaft in 

 Wien, viii Bd., 1858, pp. 613-634). In his notes on the species Loew writes {loc. 

 cit., p. 622), " The entirely black colour of the antennce and legs make it readily 

 recognisable. Moreover, it is conspicuously distinguished from all other European 

 species known to me by the fact that the shining black cheek-tubercles not only cover 

 the entire cheeks, but also extend at the orbits high up on to the face, and there com- 

 pletely coalesce with the facial tubercles." This is precisely what we find in the 

 specimens from Studland Heath. On the following page, however (p. 623), Loew 

 appends a note which is worth translating in extenso ; he writes — " I possess a 

 female, taken near Konigsberg in Prussia, which is either a highly remarkable variety 

 of Chr. sepulcralis, or belongs to a species which has still to be described. It re- 

 sembles Chr. sepulcralis in the coloration of the antennae and legs, in the formation 

 of the facial and cheek-tubercles, as well as in the marking of the wings ; it is, 

 however, somewhat larger and almost entirely clothed with black hair, so that a 

 scanty clothing of yellowish hair is only found on the middle of the upper-side of 

 the thorax, on the scutelFum, and on the middle of the posterior margin of the 

 second and third abdominal segments besides ; in particular the otherwise uniformly 

 black colour of the hair of the abdomen is very noticeable. I should have felt no 

 hesitation whatever in regarding this female as a new species, had not the examina- 

 tion of a considerable number of male specimens of Chr. quadratus taught me that 

 the colour of the hair is not constant in all species of Chrysops, and if the not 

 altogether faultless condition of the solitary specimen in my collection had not 

 warned me to be specially cautious." 



Now, although Loew does not say so explicitly, it is to be inferred from this 

 note that in normal specimens of Chr. sepulcralis the dorsum of the thorax and the 

 pleurae are clothed with yellow hair much as in Chr. ccecutiens or Chr. relictus. Schiner 



