114 STRATIOMYIDiE 



Abdomen broader than the thorax but hardly longer, short and elliptic, rather 

 arched, and with five or six visible segments ; always with a black ground colour, 

 but usually with peculiarly characteristic white markings which may predominate 

 all over the middle part in the male, but which are commonly reduced in the female 

 to a whitish margin and a row of small dorsal spots, and usually in both sexes there 

 are whitish markings on the belly. Genitalia inconspicuous but probably affording 

 good specific distinctions. 



Legs simple ; tibiae and tarsi usually extensively whitish ; front legs very widely 

 separated from the posterior pairs, these latter being close together. 



Wings (fig. 117) of the Stratiomyid type in having the veins to the end of the 



Fig. 117. — Nemotelus uliginosus (J. x 14. 



cubital crowded together on the foremargin and with the veinlets from the discal 

 cell faint ; subcostal and radial veins almost anastomosing, so that the radial is lost 

 unless it is indicated by a slight fold just below the subcostal ; cubital vein starting 

 a little before the base of the discal cell and connected by the discal cross-vein with 

 the discal cell on the basal third of the latter, and usually (but not always) forked 

 before its tip, and ending at about three-quarters the length of the costa ; upper 

 branch of the postical vein forming the lower margin of the discal cell for nearly half 

 the length of the latter ; wing-membrane practically bare and without any ribs or 

 ripples. Squamse small, but the alar pair distinct and the thoracal pair forming a 

 small roundish lobe which bears a long delicate fringe. ^Halteres in no way 

 concealed. 



This genus may be easily recognised among the Glitellarince by its un- 

 armed scutellum and its produced snout-like face. 



Nemotelus is a very well-marked genus and is composed of a large 

 number of closely allied but yet usually easily distinguished species, and 

 it is unpardonable for anybody when describing a new species not to 

 mention its nearest allies and its distinguishing characters from them, as 

 it is not fair to subsequent students to have to wade through a detailed 

 description in order to find the position of the supposed new species in 

 the genus. The genus is recorded from all Europe, Asia Minor, North 

 Africa and down the Eastern side to the Cape, America from Canada to 

 Patagonia, Cuba, Jamaica, etc., but nearly all the species are Palsearctic or 

 North American. About seventy species have been described, of which 

 about fifty are Palaearctic, but I have been able to recognise only four as 

 inhabitants of Britain; and I hardly expect to find any more. The 

 metamorphoses of N. uliginosus were given in detail by Haliday in Nat. 

 Hist. Kev., 1857, 194, and he found the larvae "common under dried- 

 " up Confervas and other vegetable matter strewed on the ground, especially 

 " in marshy spots on the shore." 



The species frequent marshy ground, especially on the sea-coasts, and 

 usually occur in abundance, while it is by no means unusual to find two 

 species in company; they however also occur inland, and possibly N. 

 nigrinus is entirely a fresh-water species. I once saw the males of N. 

 uliginosus performing an aerial dance about two feet from the ground 

 in the marshy land near Landguard Fort in Suffolk, and in this dance 

 the white markings on the abdomen became very conspicuous. 



