148 ^December, 



I believe this species to bo identical with the A. pusilla of Meigen and Schiner. 

 It is not the same as the A. cinerella of Meigen, which belongs to the genus 

 Hylem^ia. 



It is not common. 



C. SEPIA, Meig, 



This small dark fly is characterized by being rather short and thick, with 

 shortish wings, which are nigrescent at the base. It is hairy, with the thorax dark 

 grey, having a central black stripe, which is sometimes indistinct. The face is rather 

 prominent, and the eyes of the males are sub-contiguous. The abdomen in the same 

 sex is black, hairy, thick, and cylindrical, with the apex large and inflexed, having 

 two projecting sub-anal hairy lamellae. A wide interrupted dorsal band, formed by 

 large sub-quadrate black spots, may be seen in certain lights. I have not seen the 

 female. 



This species is usually found in corn-fields, but is not very common ; Rondani 

 says that the larvse live in the culms of wheat and other graminacese. 



C. BiLLEERGI, Zett. 



This is an aberrant species, the generic position of which it is rather difficult to 

 determine. Schiner places it along with its congener, M. sylceatris, Fall, (of which 

 I have not seen a British example) in the genus Eriphia of Meigen. Another genus, 

 of which it possesses many of the characters, is Pogonomyia of Eondani ; it does 

 not possess, however, the distinctive points assigned by the latter author to the 

 species placed in either of the above genera, for it has the scales of the alulets very 

 small and equal in size, and the anal veins prolonged to the margin of the wings. 

 In the face of these difficulties I have thought it best to place it, at least provisionally, 

 in the present genus. 



It may be known by its black colour, its rather elongated form, the approxima- 

 tion of the eyes in both sexes, and the dilatation of the second and third joints of 

 the fore tarsi in the females. The face and epistome are both rather prominent, and 

 the latter is furnished with numerous bristles. The eyes are sub-contiguous in the 

 males, and only slightly more separated in the females. The antennae are rather 

 short, with the second joint setose ; the arista is bare and thickened at the base. 

 The thorax is of a shining blackish -grey colour, with whitish shoulders and sides. 

 The abdomen in the male is cylindrico-conical, hairy, cinereous, with a central dorsal 

 longitudinal black stripe ; it has the apex rounded, projecting, shining black, hairy 

 beneath, and furnished with two moderate-sized sub-anal lamellfB. In the female 

 the abdomen is black, shining, immaculate, rather depressed, and with a pointed 

 apex. The legs of the female are peculiar in having the second and third joints 

 of the fore tarsi somewhat dilated. 



Zetterstedt appears to have confused the sexes together, for he says, "Abdomen 

 in utroque sexu ovato-lanceolatum, sub-depressum apice acutum," which only applies 

 to the female, and he has made the mistake of attributing the possession of the 

 dilated tarsal joints to the male, an error into which Schiner has also fallen. 



This is an Alpine species. I found several specimens of both sexes in May, 

 1875, in the woods upon the summit of one of the lofty hills surmounting the ruins 

 of Bolton Abbey, in Craven, Yorkshire. 



{To he continued). 



