1900.1 201 



A. Arista plumose spinimana, Fall. 



flavicauda, Mg. 



nervosa (Meade, nee Mg.). 



striolata, Mg. (pt. $ only). 



B. Arista slightly pubescent. 



(o). Thorax and abdomen unicolorous brownish-grey liturata, Mg. 



{h). Thorax mouse-coloured, abdomen shining black spinigera, Ztt. 



As Dr. Meade in his identification of N. nervosa states "shoulder 

 points and scutellum black," it is possible that I may be in error in 

 referring this form to N. spinimana, but as I can find no British 

 specimen answering to that description, nor any reference made in any 

 other description to such a distinct colouring, I think we must con- 

 clude that Dr. Meade did not intend the word black to be taken liter- 

 ally, but rather as meaning that the shoulder points and scutellum 

 were of the same colour as (or perhaps even slightly darker than) the 

 rest of the thorax. Becker (I.e. p. 126) refers to two forma of 

 I^. nervosa, the one having four bristles on the scutellum, the other 

 with but two ; possibly the former may be true i\r. nervosa., and the 

 latter a dark coloured form of J^. spinimana agreeing with our English 

 specimens. 



I think there can be but little doubt that Meigen made a mistake 

 (S} st. Beschr., v, 235) when he united a British female with an Italian 

 male to form the species If. striolata, and that the true iV. striolata is 

 not a British species. In Mr. Verrall's collection there are some 

 Continental species of the true striolata from the Kowarz Collection, 

 and they have the black markings on all the femora much more sharply 

 defined than in our British females, and in my opinion the two forms 

 cannot be referred to the same species. 



Norellia liturata was common in Herefordshire during May, 1899, 

 and 1 found it in three well separated localities. In each case the 

 chance capture of a specimen led to the taking of many more by 

 sweeping around ; the greater number of these w^ere swept from the 

 Meadow-sweet {Spiraea ulmaria), and I suspect that the larva feeds in 

 the stalk of this plant. I took a single female specimen at Aviemore 

 on August 9th, 1899, but unlike what occurred in Herefordshire, 

 sweeping yielded no more. 



i\r. spinigera is represented in Mr. Verrall's Collection by a single 

 male from the Wilson Saunders Collection, and therefore probably 

 British, but further evidence on this point is desirable. 



As regards the variation in colour displayed by (what I consider 

 to be) iV. spinimana, it appears that the brightest coloured specimens 

 are those from the South of England and are to be found during the 



