1909.] 143 



ON THE BRITISH SPECIES OF I'llORA (I'aht U). 

 BY JOHN ir. WOOD, M.15. 



{Continued from page 120). 



Obscuripc/mis.— A rare species. Three males and one female have 

 been taken in the woods of my home district in the mouths of June 

 and September; al\va\'s singly. I have also seen a pair taken by Mr. 

 Malloch at Bouhill. 



Conformis — This black little species is :i common woodland form 

 in Herefordshire, occurring in June and occasionally later in the year. 

 I know of no other instance in which, as here, the mesopleurae are 

 sometimes bare and sometimes bristly. Any temptation, however, on 

 this account to treat the two forms as distinct species is negatived by 

 the lack of other distinctions; moreover, the bristles (if present), ;ire at 

 their very lowest development, and little more than minute and delicate 

 hairs. The question naturally arises whether one or other of these 

 species with specialised front tarsi may not be Becker's d'l/ili. But 

 with every desire to find his insect among my own material, I am 

 unable to do s(\ Allowing for some exaggeration, the enlarged meta- 

 tarsus iu his figure of the foreleg of dahli might fairly comi)are with 

 the metatarsus of conformis, but in other important points, such as 

 size, colour of legs, halteres and palpi, and type of costal divisions the 

 agreement fails ; whilst the more moderate development of the meta- 

 tarsus quite puts obscuripennis and the others out of court. 



Aliicolelln and humiJis. — These closely allied species are on the wing 

 in early summer and again in the autumn. The former seems partial 

 to high ground, among accumulations of dead leaves ; whilst the hitter 

 is less particular, frequents low and moist localities as well, and is 

 much the commoner insect. The differences in the hind-legs and the 

 bypopygia distinguish the males at once ; but the females are extremely 

 alike, and the most tangible character seems to be the colour of the 

 front tarsi, which are blackish in humilis and yellow iu aliicoleUa. 

 Colour, however, is not the most reliable of characteis in the Phorai, 

 and it may be that it is not always to be depended upon here. 



Rortensis. — Bv no means a common species. Most of my examples 

 have been captured iu my own garden at Tarriugton and in a garden 

 at Ledbury — hence the name, from the middle of July to the end of 

 September in the years 1907 and 8. A few have also been swept in 

 the woods, besides a mated pair boxed G.9.08 off the trunk of the big 



