92 STRATIOMYID.E 



except in very dark specimens. Pubescence yellow, rather short and depressed, 

 but abundant enough to be fairly conspicuous, while it is longer, whiter, and 

 still more obvious (because it is more erect) on the front and hind parts of the 

 pleurse ; mesopleuras with middle and upper parts bare and polished. 

 Scutellum usually with only the basal third black and the rest (including the 

 two spines) orange, but sometimes the whole scutellum is black and the 

 spines blackish orange ; it is more shining and less punctate than the thorax 

 and is almost bare ; metanotum rather dull black. 



Abdomen moderately shining black, but the disc (especially on the second 

 segment) so crowdedly punctate as to become rather dull ; the third and 

 fourth segments have a yellow spot at each hind corner, and these spots are 

 connected along the yellow sidemargins and just encroach on to the extreme 

 hind corners of the second segment, while the whole tip of the abdomen {i.e., 

 the apical half of the fifth segment) is also yellow and is connected narrowly 

 along the sidemargins with the other yellow markings. Pubescence very 

 minute and inconspicuous, black or blackish grey and stubby on the disc but 

 pale about the tip, while as usual it is longer and jialer about the basal 

 corners. Belly shining black, with a small pale yellow spot on the base of 

 the first segment, and a large pale yellow spot on the base of the second 

 segment which may be isolated or may be transverse and connected with the 

 yellow sidemargins ; or the belly may be yellow with a large black spot on 

 each of the third, fourth, and fifth segments; pubescence ubiquitous, but 

 short, depressed, pale and inconspicuous. 



Legs blackish brown on the basal half or three-quarters of the anterior 

 femora and on still more of the hind femora, with the orange colour extending 

 more on the under side than dorsally ; trochanters yellowish, and sometimes 

 even also part of the coxaj and the base of the femora ; tip of the femora 

 dull orange ; anterior tibiae usually with a rather small brownish ring about 

 their middle which extends all down the front side to the tip, or sometimes 

 rhe tibiae all blackish brown except on the orange base and extreme tip ; hind 

 tibife all brownish black except on the obscurely orange base and extreme tip ; 

 tarsi black, but the base of the posterior pairs orange. Pubescence slight, 

 there being only a few pale hairs Ijehind the anterior femora and a rather 

 sparse minute depressed pale pubescence on the femora and tibiae. 



Wings almost hyaline but the stigma light brownish yellow ; anterior 

 thick veins light brown, but the posterior thin veins almost pellucid ; cubital 

 vein not forked, and the hyaline part of the submarginal cell as long as the 

 stigma. Squamae (alar) very small, blackish brown with brownish fringes ; 

 thoracal pair absent. Halteres yellow. 



$ . Frons about two-fifths the width of the head, but very variable in colour : the 

 normal form (fig. 112) is deep orange with a fairly wide (a quarter of the 



frons) black middle stripe and a long large arched 

 black spot against each eye, which leave two con- 

 spicuous deep orange irregular stripes starting sepa- 

 rately a little behind the ocelli and running down 

 almost to the antennae, but widening out so that they 

 practically extend to the eyemargins at the sides of the 

 ocelli and at their end a little before the antennae ; 

 l)ut pale forms occur in which the frons is orange with 

 only a rather narrow black middle stripe which occupies 

 the vertical triangle and runs into the black face just 

 above the antennae, Avhile a very narrow 1:)lack channel 

 Oxycera i<y(jimi:a'^. x 25. i^ extended diagonally on each side from the black 



vertex to the black margin against the eyes on the 

 upper two-thirds of the frons ; a very dark form has the frons black with 

 obscure bluish orange markings which consist of two large badly defined broad 

 spots extending from behind the ocelli to half-way down the frons and of two 

 badly defined roundish spots a little above the antennae, Avhile the upper 

 third of the back of the head behind the eyes is blackish orange but blacker 

 still on a small spot on its middle close against the eyemargin ; pubescence 

 of the frons very short, ])ale and rather sparse. Face black with its sides 

 broadly covered with silvery whitish dust, and all the face bearing very short 



