2. EPHIPPIUM 85 



rusty black. _ On the fifth segment the pubescence is light grey and more con- 

 spicuous, as it is longer and less depressed. Belly shining black and apparently 

 bare, but slightly dulled by the dense very short depressed rusty black bristly 

 pubescence. Genitalia small, only a pair of small elongate oval lamellae being 

 visible. 



Legs black, but the junctions of the joints of the tarsi are reddish and the 

 soles appear red from the dense short red pubescence ; the legs are strongly built, 

 the front coxae being large and strong, the hind femora slightly clavate in 

 consequence of a little enlargement beneath about a third before the tip, and 

 the hind tibiae shortened, curved, slightly dilated for a long space before the 

 middle, and more distinctly dilated about the tip quarter. Pubescence behind 

 the anterior femora just existing though inconspicuous, but on all the rest of 

 the legs short, adherent, and all black or rusty black. Pulvilli orange, the 

 middle one shorter and more pad-like than the other two ; claws obscurely 

 orange at the base. 



Wings very strongly blackish all over, the outer part being only a little 

 faded ; the three veinlets from the discal cell to the wingmargin and the 

 upper branch of the postical vein almost straight and usually quite complete, 

 though sometimes the third one fails to reach the wingmargin ; origin of the 

 radial vein very far removed from the base of the wing and almost opposite 

 the base of the discal cell ; fork of the cubital vein very short ; upper branch 

 of the postical vein just touching the discal cell for so minute a space that a 

 small cross-vein almost exists, lower branch joining the anal vein Avell before 

 the wingmargin ; wing-membrane strongly rumpled all over but not ribbed ; 

 aluliB blackened and with a slight dark fringe. Alar squamai absent ; 

 thoracal pair small but distinct, brownish black with long blackish fringes, 

 but only microscopically pubescent on the surfaces. 



? . Very much like the male. Eyes as hairy as in the male, separated on the frons by 

 about one-fifth the width of the head ; frons shining black, parallel-sided fcr 

 about its upper half, after which it is a little wider but again almost parallel- 

 sided, and the lower half of the face is again a little widened, so that altogether 

 there is not nuich difference in the width of the space between the eyes at the 

 vertex and at the mouth ; frons with a large shallow transverse depression soon 

 after its middle and (vitli a narrow middle furrow clown its lower part, closely 

 imnctate all about the shallow depression and only a little less so above that, 

 but with a shining almost impunctate space just below that ; face shining, with a 

 rather large circular depression just under the antenna? ; frons, face, jowls, and 

 lower part of the back of the head with dense erect black pubescence, except 

 that usually the frons is i^artially or wholly brownish orange haired between 

 the ocelli and just before the antennas, or a slight greyish pubescence may 

 extend still further down outside the antennae • all round the back of the 

 eyes there is a broad distinct almost flat eye-collar (wider than in the male on 

 especially the upper part), the flat up^ier part of which bears short adherent 

 but conspicuous grey forwards-directed pubescence, but on the lower part 

 such pubescence is browner and rather inconsj^icuous though a narrow greyish 

 border extends all along under the lower part of the eyes ; palpi distinctly 

 orange red. 



Thorax, abdomen, legs, wings, squamae, halteres, etc., practically as in the 

 male, but the middle pulvillus is more like the other two. 

 Length about 12 mm. 



This species has no ally in Europe. It varies very little, but I have 

 seen two or three specimens in which the third veinlet from the discal 

 cell distinctly fails to reach the wingmargin, and in one of these the first 

 veinlet disappears for a short distance at about a third from its origin ; 

 in the female the amount of brownish pubescence on the frons varies a 

 little. 



E. thoracicum has at the present time but faint claims to be considered a 

 British species, but I have included it because I have very little doubt about 

 its having been taken at Darenth Wood in Kent, and at Coombe Wood in 



