158 STRATIOMYID^ 



extended all round the edge of a field near the Bawdsey Feny, and 

 Colonel Yerbury has found it rather common in the Thames Valley. I 

 have other records from Hampshire (St Helens in Isle of Wight), Sussex 

 (Eastbourne, Seaford, Littlehampton), Suffolk (several locaUties) and 

 Norfolk (Horning) ; all these localities appear to be in the neighborhood 

 of large salt, or at any rate brackish, marshes, and Duncan (1837) quoted 

 Haliday for its occurrence in Ireland at Holywood, Co. Down, and at 

 Killarney, while he gave Duddingston, near Edinburgh, as a locahty for 

 S. riparia. Colonel Yerbury records a specimen from Caragh Lake, Co. 

 Kerry, on August 20, 1901. My dates extend from July 5 to August 28. 

 It is recorded from Finland through all Central Europe. 



Synonymy. — A considerable amount of confusion has occurred tlirougli Walker's 

 attempt to record >S'. riparia as a British species distinct from ;S'. furcata ; his S. 

 riparia is evidently founded on a specimen or specimens which had "narrow 

 whitish " abdominal spots instead of what he calls " more or less triangular tawny 

 spots " ; the two are evidently varieties of one species, and it is most probable that 

 Meigen's S. riparia was founded upon the same variety ; it is hardly worth while 

 calling attention to Walker's using the word " apice " when he meant basi ! Duncan 

 had previously (1837) attempted to distinguish S. furcata and »S'. riparia^ but 

 Walker does not appear to have seen Duncan's paper. It may be taken as quite 

 certain that our species is the same as the S. furcata which Zetterstedt and van der 

 Wulp (who suppressed ;S'. rijjaria as a synonym) found commonly in Scandinavia 

 and The Netherlands. 



4. S. longicornis Scopoli. Eyes bearing obvious black hairs in both 

 sexes, and with no encircling yellow band in the female. Abdomen with- 

 out pale spots, though bands of pale pubescence are visible. Legs and 

 belly mainly black. 



A conspicuously pubescent species, which has no pale 

 markings on the ground colour of the abdomen. 



^. Head comparatively small. Face and frons forming an equilateral space, 

 which can hardly be called a triangle because each of the three sides is rather 

 curved, about two-fifths the width of the head at the mouth level, and all covered 

 with dense long tawny or yellow or almost whitish pubescence, which is not 

 quite dense enough to conceal the black ground colour ; this pubescence is 

 slightly drooping on the face, but is erect on the frons and about the antennae ; 

 face bulging ; jowls broad, with similar but much less dense pubescence which 

 consequently leaves the shining black ground colour quite obvious ; back of 

 the head sliglitly inflated up to the middle, but above that almost flush with 

 the eyes ; at the point where the inflation ceases there is a slight angle in the 

 outline of the back of the head, and on the widest part there is close against 

 the eye a brownish red margin, below which the eyemargin is shimmering 

 white down to the jowls, and above which it is shimmering brownish orange 

 on the narrow line against the eye ; behind all this on the flat back of the 

 head is a long straggly brownish yellow pubescence which forms a ciliation of 

 rather shorter straight yellow hairs behind the narrow rim against the upper 

 part of the eye • vertex shining black, with indistinct brownish tawny or 

 almost black pubescence ; the very narrow space between the eyes has two 

 very narrow rims, and between them is a line of coarse brownish tawny to 

 blackish brown rather upturned hairs, which continue to the more blackish 

 tawny to pale greyish yellow pubescence on the small rather dull black frons. 

 Eyes clothed with rather dense long black pubescence, which is brownish in 

 some lights ; facets not abruptly contrasted in size though they are smaller 

 on the lower part than on the upper ; eyes generally dark brown, but sometimes 

 even in dry specimens a broad purplish band can be traced across the eyes 



