2. EPHIPPIUM 83 



2. EPHIPPIUM. 



Uphippium Latreille, Hist. Nat. Crust. Ins., iii., 448 (1802). 

 Ejihippiomyia Bezzi, Zeitschr. Hym. Dipt., ii., 191 (1902). 



Head rather small but as wide as the front part of the thorax ; face arched, but 

 not projecting in profile beyond the eyes, densely pubescent • palpi long and densely 

 hairy. Eyes of the male touching for a long space on the frons and with the facets 

 all equal in size, of the female widely separated ; densely hairy in both sexes. 

 Antemia3 about as long as the head ; basal joint cup-shaped, not much longer than 

 the second ; third joint elongate, indistinctly annulated until near its tip, and ending 

 in a long iiointcd ajncal style. 



Thorax slightly longer than broad, contracted in front, and with a conspicuous 

 hornlike spine on each side just before the wing-base (fig. 102); humeri raised in a 

 l)lunt projection. Scutellum well elevated at its base above the level of the hind- 

 margin of the thorax, and bearing two very large thick hairy marginal spines set 

 well apart. 



Abdomen ovate, flattened, slightly broader and longer than the thorax and 

 scutellum together. 



Legs strong ; front cox^ large. 



Wings with the venation of the Clitellarirui^, but the small cross-vein almost 

 exists as the upper branch of the postical vein only touches the discal cell for a 

 minute space ; veinlets from the discal cell usually complete. Wing-membrane 

 strongly rippled but not ribbed. Alula? unusually large, so that when the wings are 

 closed they are folded up against the sides of the scutellum. Alar squamae absent ; 

 thoracal pair small but distinct, hardly pubescent on the surfaces. 



This genus is distinguished from all others by the remarkable spines, 

 on the thorax just before the wing-base. 



Ephippimii contains only two Palaearetic species, one of which is only 

 known from Japan, while the other occurs over most of Europe and is said 

 to have been taken in England. The metamorphoses have often been 

 observed, and the larva (according to Mitrkel and Heyden) appears to be 

 parasitic in the nests of Formica fulicjinosa, though Westwood (Introd. 

 Mod. Classif. Ins., ii., p. 533) refers to von Koser who found a larva in a 

 rotten nut tree, and stated that although it was more than half grown 

 when found yet it was two years in arriving at the perfect state. 



Synonymy. — The genus Ephippium was founded by Latreille in 1802, and he 

 then gave " Exemples. Stratiornys microleon ; epldpinum F. " ; he made no 

 mention of the peculiar spines on the thorax, but his name alone would prove that 

 he intended it to apply to '''' epliippium" rather than to '"''microleon" In 18u5 (Hist. 

 Nat. Crust. Ins., xiii., p. 341) he placed Stratiornys ephippium Fab. as his first 

 species and renamed it Epliippium thoracicum, and in 1809 he redescribed the genus 

 in more detail and gave as one character " Thorax utrinque unidentatus," and at the 

 same time relegated microleon to Stratiornys. 



I have not seen his description in Diet, d'hist. nat., xxiv., p. 192 (1804), but it was 

 then that he first gave the new specific name of thoracicum m accordance with the 

 custom of those days when raising an old specific name to generic rank. The genus 

 has several times been sunk under Clitellaria under a misapprehension that that 

 name held priority, and in such cases the specific name ephippinm has been retained. 

 In Scudder's Nomenclator (1882) a name Ephippium has been recorded as having 

 been established by Bolten. Mus. (ed. 2, p. 116) Moll, Biv. in 1798, and apparently 

 upon that authority Bezzi in 1 9' 2 changed the name to Ephippiomyia ; I have 

 however tried to obtain particulars about the supposed name of 1798, but I cannot 

 even trace the existence of the work in which it was supposed to have been founded ; 

 the description (if any) may have been given unscientifically, and until evidence of a 

 clear nature is forthcoming, I must decline to change the name which had stood 

 unchallenged for exactly a hundred years. 



The genus Fotamida Meigen (1800) was I believe not established under the Eules 

 of Nomenclature, and consequently has no claim of priority. 



