3. OXYCERA 



99 



under margin of the metapleurae ; postalar calli conspicuously yellow ; 

 pubescence very short and slight, whitish and sloping backwards on the 

 front part but sloping rather forwards on the rest of the disc, longer and 

 more obvious on the pleurae except on the bare middle part of the meso- 

 pleurse. Scutellum and its spines entirely yellow, with practically no 

 pubescence. 



Abdomen shining black, with the tip and narrow sidemarginal lines 

 (except on the basal segment) yellowish, but the sidemarginal lines hardly 

 connect with the tip, as that consists of only the extreme hindmargin of the 

 last segment and the base of the genitalia j pubescence all very minute. 

 Genitalia brownish orange. 



Legs mainly darkish orange, but at least the tip part of the front tibiae 

 and all the front tarsi black ; femora usually slightly obscured about the 

 middle, and there are variable and badly defined dark markings on the 

 posterior legs to the extent that sometimes the tibiae are all black except 

 about the base and at the extreme tip, and the tarsi black except on the basal 

 joint of the hind pair ; or on the other hand, the posterior tibice may have 

 only vague dark markings, and the basal joint of the middle tarsi and the 

 two basal joints of the hind tarsi may be orange ; or again, the front femora 

 may be clear orange, and the hind femora may have a broad obscure ring 

 about the middle. 



Wings altogether more hyaline than in the male, with the darkened veins 

 and the stigma sometimes more yellowish. Alar squama3 dull brownish with 

 paler brownish fringes, Halteres whitish yellow. 



Length about 4 mm. 



This species requires no comparison with any known European one 

 because its antenupe dissociate it from all the other species of the genus, but 

 ill other respects it would come near 0. terminata. It varies considerably 

 as mentioned above in the colour of the posterior legs, and even the black 

 tip to the front tibiae may vary from three-fifths to two-fifths, but yet 

 that and the black front tarsi give a good distinctive character, I believe 

 this is the first occasion upon which the male has b'een described, except 

 for Brunetti's statement in The Entomologist, xxii., p. 84 (1889) that the 

 legs of the male are " all entirely black," which is as incorrect as his state- 

 ment that the legs of the female are " yellow with black tarsi tips." 



An extraordinary variety of the male (fig, 115) was taken at Torquay on 

 June 8, 1901, which may be immature, but which 

 gives such remarkable abdominal markings that 

 they may afford a clue to the true relationship of 

 this abnormal species. The abdomen is blackish 

 brown with three pairs of very large subquadrate 

 obscurely yellowish spots on the second, third, and 

 fourth segments, so that on these segments the 

 abdomen may be described as obscurely yellowish 

 with a fairly broad black dorsal line and narrower 

 hindmargins, though when seen from above the 

 front corners of the segments are indefinitely tri- 

 angularly obscured ; the basal segment is nearly all 

 indistinctly yellowish, and the hind half of the 

 fifth (and apparently all a sixth) segment yellowish ; 

 genitalia blackish, with a pair of short thick brown 

 lamellae. Belly black, with the yellowish upper 

 markings indistinctly showing through. Legs black, tip third of the front 

 femora and basal third of the front tibiae orange; posterior tibiae black 

 with the base obscurely brownish orange; hind tarsi entirely black; 



Fig. 115.- 



-Oxycera teniiicornis 

 6 , var. 



