136 STRATIOMYID^ 



a short fork at about two-thirds the submarginal cell ; discal cell pentagonal, 

 and its two issuing veinlets (especially the second) with an undulation, and 

 neither of them nor the upper branch of the postical vein reaching the wing- 

 margin ; anal cell closed well before the wingmargin ; discal vein rather and 

 almost equally thin up to its fork. Alar squamae fairly large, dark brown with 

 a short pale fringe ; thoracal squamte rather large, conspicuously white and 

 bearing white woolly pubescence all over including a long neat marginal 

 fringe. Halteres canary yellow with the stem brown. 



9 . Very similar to the male. Frons at the vertex occupying fully one-third the 

 width of the head and the space between the eyes very gradually widening 

 until at its lowest part it is half the width of the head ; face in profile pro- 

 duced more than half the width of the eye ; frons and face all black ; frons 

 only moderately shining as it is roughly punctate on the two large shallowly 

 depressed spaces about the middle, but more shining on the upper and lower 

 thirds, the upper third being sparsely punctate and with a roughened surface, 

 but the lower third more shining (especially over the antennae) and not punc- 

 tate ; frons with a distinct middle furrow all the way down from the ocelli 

 to the antennae, and with short greyish black and inconspicuous pubescence 

 except for a shimmering greyish white patch on each side against the eyes 

 a little above the antennae, and for a few greyish hairs about the depressed 

 spaces ; about the antennas and out to the end of the facial hump there are 

 longer stifFer black hairs, though the pubescence on the shining black face is 

 mainly long, greyish, and rather droo^jing, and again on the eyeinargins there 

 are shimmering whitish patches ; on the jowls and round the mouth the greyish 

 pubescence is longer and hangs down ; back of the head all puffed out and only 

 slightly more so on the lower than on the upper part, dull black with a fairly 

 broad and conspicuous shimmering whitish eyemargin composed of adpressed 

 pubescence which mainly points forwards, and which extends all round from 

 the lowest part of the eye to the upper eye-angle against the vertex. Eyes 

 quite bare, rather large for a female. Antennie with the basal joint distinctly 

 longer than the second, and with the short fifth annulation of the flagellum 

 fairly distinct. 



Thorax and sctitellum shining black, with conspicuous short adpressed 

 greyish or greyish orange scaly pubescence all over the disc, and also with 

 rather inconspicuous but moderately long erect greyish ptibescence which 

 becomes longer denser and darker about the sides of the disc, and still longer 

 paler and more straggly on the pleurae. Scutellum with the spines varying 

 from almost black to yellowish. 



Abdomen shining black Avith jttst the tip sharply yellowish, this tip being 

 the arched hindmargin of the fifth segment and that portion of the sixth 

 segment which is not concealed under the fifth ; pubescence on the disc very 

 slight, dark, and very inconspicuous, but more evident and all greyish on the 

 depressed sides, and longer and whitish grey on the actual margins with a 

 small tuft at the shoulders, and more conspicuous and more erect on the 

 fifth and on the adjoining middle part of the fourth segment. Belly 

 varying on the greater part of the disc from dull pale orange to dark 

 reddish orange or even obscure brownish, with usually a broad black margin 

 and sometimes a broad black band (narrowed at the middle) across the fourth 

 segment, but sometimes on at any rate the second segment the yellowish 

 colour may extend quite out to the sidemargins ; the fiftli segment is black 

 with a triangular yellowish spot on its hindmargin, and a small sixth segment 

 can be seen which is yellow with its base black ; pubescence rather abundant, 

 depressed and rather shimmering greyish. 



Legs as in the male, but the hind trochanters may be dull orange ; tibiae 

 with blacker and better defined rings. Pubescence on the femora slighter 

 and very nearly all greyish white. 



Wings sometimes with the anterior strong veins more darkish orange, but 

 often quite as blackish as in the male. Halteres varying from dark orange 

 to greenish white. 



Length about 9 mm. 



This species varies but little, though occasionally the female has 

 small orange spots near the hind corners of tlie second and third abdominal 



