146 STRATIOMYID^ 



which becomes yellowish towards the end and widens out only at the 

 shoulders, and this distinction is mainly caused by the black coloring on the 

 second segment being wider and widening still more towards the hind 

 corners, thereby entirely doing away with the rectangular inner hind 

 angles, while on the third and fourth segments the pale side-band is 

 narrower and does not extend inwards near the hind corners of each 

 segment, and the pale margin round the end of the abdomen is narrower ; 

 in these two specimens the antennje are entirely dark brown, and the 

 femora are obscured on about the basal half, the pubescence is bronzy 

 golden and is especially dense and conspicuous on the whole of the collar 

 behind the eyes ; the upper veinlet from the discal cell is distinctly visible 

 and, in certain lights, as much developed as the next one, and I think the 

 bare polished spaces on the face are larger and more conspicuous. On 

 the Continent a very similar variety has been described as 0. Heydenii by 

 Jaennicke, and other remarkable varieties are recorded ; in one well-known 

 variety {jejuna) the abdomen is entirely green or yellowish green, or with 

 only a black basal spot, in another {interrupta) there is the black basal 

 spot and also a large subanal spot, in others {siibvittata and himaculata) 

 there may be another black spot between the two previously mentioned 

 spots. Colonel Yerbury has informed me that the extreme variations 

 between green and yellow markings have no correlation with the presence 

 or absence of black dots on the eyes in life. 



0. viridula is by far the commonest species of the small Stratiomy»- 

 Uke flies in Britain, and occurs in most marshy places. I have numerous 

 records from Devon, Sussex, Kent, Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk, Cambridge- 

 shire, Herts, Hereford, Warwick, and Northampton in England ; Glamorgan 

 and Merioneth in Wales; and various localities in Cork and Kerry in Ireland, 

 but the only northern records are from Scotston Moor near Aberdeen and 

 from Barr in Ayrshire. . The dates range from June 2 to August 17. It 

 seems to like the flowers of Cnicus pcdmtris. It is recorded from Middle 

 and North Europe and from Asia Minor, but not from the extreme North. 



>S)/)io7i>/m>/. — The only addition I can make to the accepted synonymy Is the 

 inclusion of 0. Heydenii Jaennicke ; I possess a male and a female from Bigot's 

 collection which probably came from Jaennicke, and though they represent a large 

 form I cannot consider them distinct, as they are almost identical with the variety 

 I have mentioned from Waterville. I have no doubt that several reputed British 

 species of Odontomyia have been introduced from varieties of H. viridida, as I found 

 a female in the British Museum from Berkshire and a male in the Hope Museum 

 at Oxford labelled '" hi/droleon" and a female in the Hope Museum labelled 

 "angidata P.," while another female in that collection is labelled "felina," and yet 

 another female " atrata," which makes the third species in that collection labelled 

 " atrata." 



6. STRATIOMYS. 



Stratiomys Geoffroy, Hist. des. Ins., ii., 475 (1764). 



Large, though not very large, flies of blackish colour usually 

 broken up on the abdomen by yellow spots or bands, or by 

 patches of pale pubescence. 



