210 [February, IRTtV 



MONOGEAPH UPON THE BRITISH SPECIES OF SAECOPSAOA, OH 



FLESH-FLY. 



BY E. H. MEADE. 



Genus SAECOPHAGA. 



Gen. char. Body elongate. Antennse incumbent, with the tliird 

 joint rather more than twice the length o£ the second. Arista long, with 

 the basal half plumose (except in some aberrant species), and the extrem- 

 ity bare. Eyes naked, and separated from each other in both sexes by a 

 frontal space, which is wider in the females than in the males. Mar- 

 gins of facial gfoove smooth. Forehead with two rows of setae in the 

 males, and four in the females. Cheeks with a few small bristles 

 placed in a somewhat oblique row below each eye, and varying in size 

 in different species. Thorax large, but greater in length than width, 

 divided into two nearly equal parts by a transverse suture, and fur- 

 nished with a number of bristles, some of which are placed upon the 

 sides in irregular lines, while others are always arranged longitudinally 

 in two jDarallel rows upon the dorsum. These rows are placed upon 

 the two outer of the three broad black stripes by which the back is 

 marked, and always contain a definite number of bristles in each row, 

 some in front and others behind the transverse suture, the number 

 varying in different species, but always constant in the same. The 

 central part of the back is free from bristles, with the exception of 

 two placed just above the base of the large scutellum. 



Abdomen elongated in the males, and oval in the females, con- 

 sisting of four distinct segments, with the addition in the males of two • 

 terminal or anal joints, which arc more or less tumid and involuted. 

 The segments are armed with spines upon their posterior margins, but 

 not upon their middle surfaces (as in the TacJimidcp). Two spines 

 are always placed near together in the centre of the posterior edge of 

 the third segment, and (in many species) two also upon the same pai-t 

 of the second segment. 



Alulets or scales large, the lower scale being about twice as long 

 as the upper. 



Wings with the fifth longitudinal vein bent at an acute or right 

 angle, and then extending in a curved line to the margin, which it 

 reaches at a short distance from the extremity of the fourth longitu- 

 dinal, leaving the first posterior cell partly open. The angle of the 

 fifth vein is apparently furnished at the point of flexure with a short 

 appendix. The fourth longitudinal vein is always armed at its base 

 with a row of short spines or teeth, which are also met with in some 

 species upon the second vein. • 



