68 STRATIOMYID^ 



is a distinct furrow. Face rather inflated, with the pubescence so short that 

 it appears to be bare ; jowls broad, shining black, and bearing much shorter 

 pubescence than in the male ; lower part of the back of the head considerably- 

 inflated and bearing minute pale grey pubescence, while the up])er half is less 

 inflated and is shining black and bare. Eyes in life with a beautiful purple streak 

 across the middle. AntennjB dull orange, third joint large and conspicuous ; 

 arista tinged with orange, and as in the male short and not thin. 



Thorax and scutellum shining black as in the male, with sometimes the 

 points of the humeri and the postalar calli chestnut. 



Abdomen shining black as in the male, but with no longer pubescence 

 about the basal corners and no projecting genitalia. 



Legs as in the male, but with scarcely any pubescence on the femora, and 

 with no darkening at the tips of the tarsal joints ; trochanters brownish. 



Wings with the anterior veins brownish yellow up to the end of the cubital 

 vein. Squamae much ]ialer than in the male, with smoky margins and pale 

 fringes. Halteres dull brownish-yellow, with the knob whitish. 



Length about 275 mm. 



This species varies a little, and in the only English specimen of the 

 male I have seen the head is in profile quite as deep as long, and when 

 seen in front not twice as wide as deep ; I have, however, seen continental 

 specimens almost the same. The var. nuicoljr of the female is very 

 pronounced, as the antennse are almost blackish brown instead of con- 

 spicuous orange, and the only two specimens I have seen (wdiich probably 

 came from Jaennicke) are slightly smaller. The English specimen of the 

 male has the knob of the halteres brownish yellow on the top, A variety 

 of P. tarsalis, mentioned under that species, in which the fork of the 

 cubital vein is practically absent, disposes of Dr Sharp's suggestion that a 

 new genus should be formed for P. tninutissima. 



P. minutissima was first known as British from a male, which was 

 taken by Mr C. G-. Lamb at Horrington, near Wells in Somersetshire, in 

 July 1902, and recorded by Dr D. Sharp in the Entom. Mon. Mag., 1903, 

 p. 221, and since then a number of specimens have been bred by Dr Sharp 

 and Mr C. G. Lamb from larvse found under the bark of fir trees (Pinus 

 sylvcstrls) at Craigmore, near Nethy Bridge in Inverness, in July 1906 ; 

 the majority of the larvse however like Ferris' specimens waited for 

 emergence until the spring of 1907. My description is mainly made from 

 two males given me by Mik from Lower Austria and from a female taken 

 at Aseh in Bohemia ; I have however closely compared English specimens, 

 and also several specimens in Bigot's collection which were labelled pini, 

 tenellus, and unicolor. It is recorded from Scandinavia, France, Germany, 

 and Austria, and is associated with Ahies or Pinus. Perris (Annales Soc. 

 Entom. France, 1870, p. 210) found the larvae on Pinus maritimus 

 " souvent en societc's tres-nombreuses, sous les ecorces des pins labourees 

 " par les larves des Tomicus et des ffylurf/us, parmi les detritus et les 

 "excrements laisses par ces larves, et dont elles se nourrissent" ; he 

 further stated that their growth is slow, being not less than ten months, 

 as the eggs are laid in June or July in the channels of Tomicus, and do 

 not hatch until April or May in the following year ; he gave a detailed 

 description of the larva, pupa, and perfect insect, accompanied by ten 

 fio-ures, 



Sj/nom/my. — I see no reason to consider, as Jaennicke suggested, that Zetterstedt 

 had any admixture of another species under his name of P. miriiitissimiis, and conse- 

 quently Jaennicke's P. tenellus becomes a simple synonym, and even his var. unicolor 

 had b.'en previously observed by Zetterstedt (Dipt. Scand., xi., p. 4261). Perris' P. 



