252 [November, 



A NEW BRITISH ANTHOMYID. 

 BY PERCY H. GRIMSHAW, F.E.S. 



Til .1 collection of Biptera made by the late George W. Ord in 

 the Clyde district, and sent to me for identification, is an interesting 

 species of AnthomyidcB not hitherto, so far as I am aware, recorded 

 as British. This is Ryetodesia aculeipes, Zett., a small blackish species 

 belonging to the group with black legs and short-haired arista, but 

 easily distinguished from all other British forms by the remarkable 

 appendage with which the hind tibia of the male is furnished. Only 

 a single specimen, a male, of this singular insect was obtained by 

 Mr. Ord, who captured it along with H. incana, Wied., and H. 

 longipes, Zett., at Strathblane, on June 19th, 1S99. In the key given 

 by Meade (" Descriptive List," p. 4), Ryetodesia aculeipes, Zett., 

 works out alongside H. hirsutula, Zett., and in Schiner's " Fauna 

 Austriaca," vol. i, p. 618, it also comes next to that species, under the 

 genus Lasiops, Mg. 



The following description may be useful, in case this very inter- 

 esting species should be met with elsewhere : — 



Hyetodesia aculeipes. Zett. —Ins. Lapp., p. 674, n. 58 (1840) ; 

 Dipt. Scand., iv, p. 1487, n. 96 (1845)— [..Incia id.} ; Schiner, Fauna 

 Austriaca, vol. i, p. 618 {imO) — [Lasiops id.^. 



Eyes sub-contiguous, with long hairs ; antennae short, black, with pubesceni 

 arista ; epistome dark, with grey reflections, and very prominent, almost rostrate 

 oral margin, palpi black. Thorax shining black, with glistening whitish shoulders, 

 scutellum blackish, calyptra whitish, hal- 

 teres black {not testaceous, as Zetterstedt 

 states). Abdomen greyish, very hairy, 

 with broad, but not very distinct, black 

 dorsal stripe ; wings clear, outer cross vein 

 straight, 3rd and 4th longitudinal veins 

 very slightly divergent at the tip. Legs 

 entirely black ; fore and intermediate 

 femora strongly and regularly ciliate, fore 



tibia) witli a single strong bristle on the « 



outer side near the tip ; intermediate tibise W'^d-Ug "^ HYetoies.a dculeipes.Zett <i* 

 with three or four strong bristles ; hind femora with strong bristles on the inner 

 apical half, hind tibise slightly curved, with a double row of bristles on the outer 

 surface; and two long bristles behind, one beyond the middle, and the other (the 

 shorter) near the tip, inner surface quite bare, but furnished at one-third from the 

 base with a strong and peculiar appendage pointing obliquely inwards at an angle 

 of 45°, and as long as the remaining two-thirds of the tibia. This appendage is 

 furnished with a blunt hook at the tip, turned towards the tibia, and below the tip 

 on the side next the tibia with a short stiff brush of lighter-coloured hairs. 



Length, (i — 7 mm. 



Edinburgh : Septi'mher, lOUU. 



