74 STRATIOMYID.E 



opening. Eyes broad ovate, but wlien viewed sideways slightly flattened 

 behind, and when viewed from in front of course flattened against the frons 

 and face ; facets all equal ; the eyes in life have a greenish hue with evasive 

 purplish brown markings on the upper half, and with a median horizontal 

 purplish brown band extending four-fifths of the way across from the front 

 margin. Anteniice orange, with either the tip of the third joint blackened or 

 all its margin except across the base or even still more darkened except at 

 its base ; the two basal joints slightly bristly beneath, and the third joint 

 faintly annulated ; arista blackish, thin, and long, being about three times as 

 long as the antennae. 



Thorax shining black, but dulled behind the suture l^y dense punctuation ; 

 this dense punctuation extends a])ove the suture about tlie middle part but then 

 grows sparser until all the front part of the thorax is bare, brilliantly polished, 

 and impunctate ; moreover, the suture is very deeply and broadly impressed 

 and at the middle extends backward V-shaped, and outside and behind the 

 slopes of the V are large ])ost-sutural humps of which the front part is impunc- 

 tate ; and in addition, right out on the forepart of the disc well away from 

 the suture or any margin, there is on each side a rounded patch which is almost 

 but not quite impunctate and bare ; with the exception of the impunctate 

 portions the disc of the thorax bears conspicuous short depressed white 

 pubescence ; pleurae mainly bare and polished, but rather before the hind- 

 margin of the mesojileurae there is a rather conspicuous band of brilliant 

 white pubescence, and the lower part of the sternopleurte bears a few short 

 clear white hairs. Scutellum moderately elongate, dulled bj^ rather dense 

 luinctuation, and with minute dull white pubescence. 



Abdomen shining black, rather obscured by punctuation and by the tiny 

 dark (in some lights grey) bristles which arise from each punctuation ; 

 pubescence longer and greyish about the basal corners. Belly black, with 

 minute sparse white pubescence. Genitalia (when visible) rather large, ending 

 in a pair of rather long oval dark brown small lamellae. 



Legs yellow, but the coxai and the basal five-sixths of the femora black 

 or blackish ; trochanters obscurely brownish ; pubescence on the femora 

 slight, pale, and inconspicuous. 



Wings hyaline, but soon after the base the subcostal vein is blackish and 

 the costa brownish up to the base of the pale yellowish grey stigma, where 

 the darkening abruptly terminates ; basal veins rather thick and rather 

 conspicuously yellowish, as well as the postical vein as far as the base of the 

 discal cell, and then similarly thick and colored veins extend up the inner side 

 of the discal cell and on up to the end of the cubital fork ; all the other veins 

 rather faint ; fork of the cubital vein almost before the middle of tlie sub- 

 marginal cell. Squamae obscurely blackish glassy with yellowish margins and 

 pale fringes. Halteres with the large knob yellowish white, but with the 

 stem darkened. 



$. Very similar to the male, and in fact very diflicult to distinguish. Frons 

 (fig. 98) at its narrowest part about one-fifth the width of the head ; white 



patches above the antennae more conspic- 

 uous ; back of the head slightly more 

 inflated. Antenute with the third joint 

 distinctly larger and sometimes all darkened. 

 Thorax with shorter and less conspicuous 

 wlrite pubescence especially on the front 

 part. Ovipositor (when exs'erted) long, 

 narrow, and yellowish. 



Legs with occasionally a small darkened 

 iw-hygastcrorhlt'nu^ <}. x 33. patch behind the middle of the front 



tibiae. 

 Wings with the two dark veins, especially the sidicostal, sometimes more 

 conspicuous or sometimes only brownish yellow. 

 Length about ;?-25 mm. 



This species is easily distinguished from all the other European species 

 by the silvery white eyemargins to the face, while the male is distinguished 



