o 1 Q [October, 



only nine specimens, about equally divided between the sexes. Its 

 period of flight seems also to be unusually brief for a Phora, extend- 

 ing only from the middle of May to the first week in June. With 

 the exception of one from Ashperton Park, all the others were taken 

 in Stoke wood. The extreme extent to which the anterior scutellar 

 bristle is reduced in one of the males, and its small size in all of 

 them, led me originally to treat the sexes as distinct species, placing 

 the male in the Section with only two scutellar bristles. They have, 

 however, so much else in common, that there cannot be a doubt that 

 they are one and the same thing. The female bears a superficial 

 resemblance to the same sex of campestris, but the long projecting 

 ovipositor and very short arista are quite sufficient to distinguish it ; 

 whilst other characteristic features are the two or three strong pleural 

 bristles (only one in campestris), and the wide flattened and arched 

 hind tibia?. 



Campestris, n. sp. — A common species, occurring as far north at 

 least at Bonhill. It is rather variable in the colour, both of the wings 

 and legs, the darker legs being associated with the clearer wings, and 

 vice versa— an illustration of the general rule governing colour in 

 these insects. 



Besides the unnamed species alluded to above, under retroversa, 

 there are at least two other forms in my collection with four bristles 

 to the scutellum, which are without a doubt distinct species, but I 

 prefer waiting for more material before introducing them. 



ON THE BRITISH SPECIES OF ILELOPHORUS, Fab. 

 BY JAMES EDWARDS, E.E.S. 



The difficulty which I have experienced in the process of deter- 

 mining the British species of Ilelopliorns in my collection leads me 

 to conclude that their differential peculiarities may be restated with 

 advantage. I therefore offer the following table, prepared with the 

 insects before me, in which I have contrasted the best index-characters 

 that I could find for the several species, and 1 believe that the segre- 

 gation of the specimens according to the characters here employed 

 will give a result more satisfactory than that to which we are 

 accustomed. In most of the species there is rather a wide range of 

 variation, both in size and colour. The species of the affinis group 

 are at first sight very difficult but here T had the advantage of 

 possessing examples of all three determined by Herr l.udwig (Jangl- 



