84 STRATIOMYID^ 



1. E. thoracicum Fabricius. A large conspicuous fly. Thorax red ; 

 abdomen, etc., black. 



A large black fly which has the whole disc of the thorax 

 bright red. 



(?. Head comi)aratively small, being about as wide as the front part of tlie thoi'ax 

 Face and frons shining black, and Hush with the eyes though the face is 

 arched ; both face and frons covered with long porrect dense black pubescence ; 

 frons with a narrow middle furrow ; jowls and lower part of the back of the 

 head small and the latter hardly inflateil, Ijut l)c)th bearing dense black 

 pubescence ; all round the hindinargin of the eye there is a fairly broad eciual 

 greyish black eye-collar which is without any long pubescence, but which 

 beai'S a minute adherent forwards-directed scaly pubescence which is fairly 

 conspicuous and whitish, but on the ujjjjer part (which is obscurely tinged 

 reddish) this minute pubescence is inconspicuous because it is darker ; vertex 

 conspicuously elevated, shining black, rather small even though produced 

 to a long point, and bearing rather short abundant black pubescence ; pro- 

 boscis large, dull black ; palpi long and jointed, the end joint being linear 

 and projecting forwards from the head, and this joint has a brownish tinge 

 and is clothed with long black bristly hairs which spread out at the tip like 

 a birch broom. Eyes densely clothed all over with moderately long black 

 ])ubescence ; toiiching for about one-third the distance between tlie vertex 

 and the antenna} ; facets all equal. Antennse dull black, in profile inserted a 

 little below the middle of the eye, about as long as the head ; the two 

 basal joints transverse cup-shaped, but the basal joint has a short narrower stem 

 which makes it rather longer than the second one ; both basal joints clothed 

 with rather conspicuous black bristly hairs ; third joint (including the style) 

 about two-and-a-half times as long as the two basal joints together, and 

 gradually tapering to a point ; third joint (without the style) about as bulky 

 as the two basal joints for about half its length, after which it quickly con- 

 tracts to about half the diameter and then maintains that size up to the style ; 

 it is very indistinctly annulated until the last two rings, which are distinct 

 (especially the last one), and these two rings bear minute dorsal bristles at 

 the tip ; style long thin and pointed being more than half as long as the third 

 joint, and bearing at its tip a minute thread-like arista, and also i)earing some 

 minute bristles about its base as well as two or three more before half its 

 length. 



Thorax densely covered all over its disc (except just in front and on its side- 

 margins) with felt-like matted red pubescence which practically conceals the 

 black ground colour ; it gradually widens from the humeri to the postalar 

 calli and is slightly longer than its broadest part ; away from the red disc it 

 is all deep black and moderately shining ; humeri standing out as blunt points, 

 and the dorso-pleural suture deej^ly impressed ; just after the thoracic suture 

 and just before the wing-base there is on each side a long erect horn-like 

 spine, which is shining black and pointed, and which bears on its basal part 

 a few rather short black bristly hairs. Pubescence, besides the red felt, 

 consisting of some inconspicuous short reddish orange hairs scattered amidst 

 the red felt, and of fairly abundant rather long black hairs on all the black 

 part of both thorax and pleurie. Scutellum shining black, though roughly 

 densely and coarsely punctate, conspicuously raised above the level of the 

 hindmargin of the thorax, and bearing on its margin two very large ui)turned 

 thick shining black spines, which are longer than the scutellum itself and 

 whicli are hardly reduced to a point at their ti}) ; these spines are densely 

 clothed with conspicuous coarse black pubescence except just at the tip, which 

 is bare and usually rather brownish. 



Abdomen shining black, ovate, flattened on all the disc but distinctly 

 margined, rather broader and rather longer than the thorax and scutellum 

 together, densely but finely punctate, composed of live almost equally long 

 segments (basal segment rather the shortest) ; pubescence on the four basal 

 segments apparently none, as all over the disc it is black or rusty black and 

 very short and dense, but there are a few longer black hairs about the basal 

 corners, and the hairs on the absolute sidemargins are slightly longer and arc 



