1905.] 5 



THE OCCURRENCE IN HEREFORDSHIRE OF CALLIMYIA 

 ELEOANTULA, Fall., AND AGATHOMYIA BOREELLA, Zett. 



BY J. H. WOOD, M.B. 



The Platypezidce are remarkably well represented in Hereford- 

 shire, for with the one exception of AgatJiomyia collini, Verr , the 

 other British species are all to be found in this out-of-the-way corner 

 of the kingdom. Tt may be remembered that quite recently I intro- 

 duced (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xiv, p. 271), Afjathomyia viduella as a 

 British insect, and T may as well say that it has turned up again this 

 year, though in very sparing numbers ; whilst Mr. Verrall tells me 

 he has received a male from Scotland, taken by Col. Yerbury at 

 Aviemore, on the 24th of last June. Now I am able to add two other 

 species of the family to our Lists. 



QalUmyia elegantuJa, Fall. — At first Mr. Verrall was in much 

 doubt about the correctness of his identification of this insect, but 

 that doubt is now reduced, in his own words, to a " modicum." My 

 two examples are both females, taken— the one at Coldborough Park, 

 May 23rd, 1904, the other at The Black Mountains, June 24th, 1904. 

 Coldborough Park is a large low-lying wood on the high road between 

 Ledbury and Eoss, the precise spot where the insect was captured 

 being a boggy and overgrown "soak." The other locality was a deep, 

 rocky lane at the foot of the mountain, opposite Longtown ; a little 

 stream runs down one side, keeping it cool and moist, and the banks 

 are overgrown in places with a luxuriant vegetation. The two places 

 being 20 miles apart in an east and west direction, the insect must be 

 widely distributed, and will doubtless turn up elsewhere in the West 

 and North. 



Remarkable for beauty as the females of Callimyia are, the palm 

 must I think be given, because of the richness of its abdominal 

 markings, to eleyantula. It is about the size of our other two species, 

 and may be distinguished from either by the distinctly elongated 3rd 

 joint of the antennae ; by the character of the thorax which, instead 

 of being velvety-black with silvery patches, is dark grey, having the 

 silvery patches represented by a much lighter grey, and marked down 

 the middle by three dark lines which are fairly conspicuous anteriorly, 

 but blend with the ground colour behind ; and by the possession of 

 three silvery bands at equal intervals on the abdomen, the first, which 

 is somewhat tinged with yellow, occupies the 1st and 2nd segments, 

 the middle one the 4th, and the last the end segment, the middle band 

 is divided by a narrow dorsal line, and indications of this line are 



