1887.J 181 



H. SIMPLEX, Wied. 

 When I published my list I had only seen a single female of this rare species, 

 •which I captured near Edinburgh in August, 1875 ; in August last (1886), however, 

 I found several males near Ulverston, Lancashire. It is a pretty, well-marked 

 species. The hairs upon the eyes, as well as those of the arista, are short ; there are 

 only three posterior thoracic dorsal bristles, as in H. serva and H. trigonaJis, and 

 the first and second rings of the abdomen are red and translucent. Meigen described 

 the male and female under different names, the former being his A. posticata, and 

 the latter the A. simplex of Wiedemann. In his 7th and Supplementary Volume 

 he places the latter in his genus Aricia, as having hairy eyes, whilst he puts the 

 former among his Hylemyia, which have naked eyes. Both sexes are well described 

 by Zetterstedt. 



SPILOG ASTER, Macq. 



S. TETRASTIGMA, Meig. 



This rare species was recorded as British and briefly described by Walker in 

 the Insecta Britannica, but I never saw a specimen until August last (1886), when 

 I captured several males as well as females near Ulverston, Lancashire ; the latter 

 sex was previously unknown. 



The male and also the female have the thorax marked with four longitudinal 

 black stripes, the outer ones being broad, irregular in shape, and interrupted at the 

 suture. There are only three dorsal bristles, behind the suture, between the middle 

 and lateral stripes ; the abdomen in the male is marked by four and sometimes by 

 six dorsal spots, which are, in some specimens, rather indistinct ; the female has the 

 abdomen immaculate, and of an uniform pale grey colour ; the antennae are entirely 

 black in the male, but have a more or less rufous tinge on the two first joints in the 

 female ; the palpi are black, with yellow roots, in both sexes ; in the male the legs 

 have the coxae, tarsi, bases, and proximal two-thirds of the upper surfaces of the 

 fore femora, as well as the bases of the posterior femora, black, and the rest of the 

 legs yellow ; in the female the coxse, all the femora (except sometimes the bases of 

 the fore pair), with the tibiae are yellow, and only the tarsi are black ; the latter sex 

 has also the posterior margin of the scutellum flavescent. 



The female, which has evidently been overlooked, owing to the absence of the 

 abdominal spots, bears a very close general resemblance to both those of Mydcea 

 impuncta and M. separata ; it may be known at once from the former by the colour 

 of the palpi, which are entirely yellow in M. impuncta ; from M. separata it may 

 be distinguished by the arista being much longer haired, and by its having only 

 three dorsal thoracic bristles behind the suture, while M. separata has four, as is 

 also the case with M. impuncta. 



S. PEKTUSA, Meig. 

 This species has been recorded as British by Mr. Verrall, in his " Hundred New 

 British Species of Diptera." I have not been so fortunate as to meet with an 

 English specimen myself. 



S. TLAGEiPES, Eond. 

 By mistake the name of this species was vivitien Jlagipea in my list. 



(To be continued). 



