3. OXYCERA 101 



" Mr Haliday has this unique species, and I cannot give the exact measure, but 

 " it is about the size of 0. rnvscaria. 



"Nigra subglabra. Antennae solito longiores et graciliores, articulis extremis 

 " parum attenuatis, unde stylus indiscretus : os fiavum : orbita postica et interna 

 " flavse, haec supra antennas in margine frontis inflexa. Vertex utrinque macula 

 " flava. Thorax vitta laterali flava pone alas dilatata. Scutellum flavum. Abdomen 

 " limbo tenui flavo. Halteres albidi. Alae hyalinse nervis introrsum flavicantibus. 

 " Pedes cum coxis ferruginei : tibiae anticae apice. posteriores medio, tarsi antici 

 " toti, posteriores apice fusci." 



" Seems very much similar to Macquart's 0. tenuicornis, but the peculiar marking 

 " of the head may afford a distinction, as Macquart leaves us to infer that his agrees 

 ■' in that with 0. muscaria, very different from yours." — Hal. MSS. (in Utteris). 



Of course the 0. muscai'ia of the above description refers to 0. pygmoea. 

 Walker's description of 0. terminata in Ins. Brit. Dipt., i., 23 (1851) probably 

 refers to the female of 0. tenuico7-nis, but Avhat he meant by "abdominis vittis 

 " duabus posterioribus flavis " nobody has ever been able to understand, and he 

 made no reference to the long antennae ; his 0. longicornis refers again probably to 

 Dale's original female specimen. 



6. O. Morrisii Curtis. Cubital vein forked. Scutellum with only the 

 tip yellow. Abdomen with five transverse whitish yellow isolated spots. 

 A very distinct species. 



S • Face and f rons forming a small rather flat triangle ; face with well-defined 

 whitish side-stripes which are covered with dense short white tomentum, and 

 the frons with less defined whitish side-bands, so that the extreme top of the 

 frons, the middle of the frons, and all the middle of the face are black ; face 

 almost disappearing below the eyes but the jowls and the back of the head 

 rather shining black, and all this part bearing fairly abundant rather long- 

 white pubescence ; lower part of the back of the head puffed out, but the 

 upper part hollowed out behind the eyes and without any trace of any 

 postocular ciliation there when viewed from in front ; vertex shining black, 

 long and pointed, extending nearly half-way to the antennai ; behind the 

 ocelli there is a slight dark fringe across the occiput, but there is practically no 

 pubescence in front of them. Eyes touching for about a third of the distance 

 between the occiput and the antennae, and bearing very inconspicuous short 

 sparse pubescence ; facets on the larger upper part large and light brown, but 

 those on the smaller lower part small and dark brown, the two parts being 

 abruptly divided and contrasted. Antennaj dull black, short for an Oxycera ; 

 basal joints sometimes brown ; arista longer than the annulated joint. 



Thorax shining black ; humeri yellow, and also a narrow line running 

 from them to under the wing-base where it moderately widens, and then after 

 an interruption reappearing as two or three spots on the back part of the pleurae, 

 and there is sometimes a small spot on the ujjper part of the sternopleurae ; 

 postalar calli yellow. Pubescence fairly abundant and conspicuous though 

 not dense enough to obscure the ground colour, whitish and bent forwards, 

 rather long on the front part of the disc and on the front part of the pleurae and 

 on the hind part of the mesopleurae, leaving the middle of the latter bare and 

 shining but perpendicularly wrinkled. Scutellum shining black with the tip 

 and the long spines yellow; pubescence very short and slight; metanotum 

 shining black. 



Abdomen shining black, with five isolated whitish yellow transverse spots 

 which are placed at the hind corners of the third and fourth segments and 

 at the tip ; the side spots rather oblong, about three times as long as broad, 

 and sloping upwards from the hind corners ; tip spot a flattened triangle. 

 Pubescence practically absent on the disc, being very short, sparse, and in- 

 conspicuous, but there are a few longer imle hairs as usual about the basal 

 corners. Belly shining black, with all the middle of the disc of the second 

 segment whitish yellow, as well as the hindmargins of the third and fourth 

 segments and all the tip ; pubescence ubiquitous, but very short and 

 inconspicuous. 



