170 STRATIOMYlDiE 



frontal pubescence extending down to the antennae is black and sloped rather 

 upwards, becoming shorter and denser near the antennae. Face dark green, 

 very slightly rounded, and clothed with rather long greyish or blackish 

 pubescence ; jowls very small but bearing a pale yellow ciliation which is 

 extended round under the eyes to the lower part of the back of the head ; 

 back of the head practically flush with the eyes for the lower three-fourths, 

 but shining black and slightly inflated as it approaches the vertex ; behind 

 the eyes on the lower half of the head there is a very short whitish ciliation, 

 but on the upper half when viewed from the side there is only a microscopical 

 black pubescence or when viewed from behind a short greyish pubescence 

 which slopes forwards ; on the occiput the pubescence is greyish white, and 

 behind the vertex it is rather long ; proboscis large and conspicuously orange. 

 Antennae rather larger than in the male, all dull blackish or sometimes dark 

 brown. 



Thorax and scutellum more brilliant than in the male, because the 

 pubescence is short and depressed, and there are practically none of the long 

 hairs which occur in the male ; pubescence brownish orange on the disc but 

 greyish white at the sides ; humeri and the upper margin of the mesopleurae 

 for their whole length yellowish. Scutellum obscurely yellowish at the basal 

 corners and beneath the margin. 



Abdomen quite as brilliant as the thorax but usually purplish with more or 

 less extensive conspicuous orange markings on most of the first and second 

 segments and on the sidemargins of the third and fourth segments ; it is 

 club-shaped, as it steadily widens from the base to the middle of the fourth 

 segment and then slightly narrows to the still brilliant sixth segment, and 

 when the ovijiositor is protruded there is a black remarkably bristly transverse 

 oblong seventh segment which is produced on the ventral hindmargin ; a 

 black bristly eighth segment may follow, and the abdomen terminates in a 

 pair of long three-jointed hairy lamellae which bear a long hair at the tip. 

 Pubescence less conspicuous than in the male. 



Legs orange, even to the coxa3, but the last three joints of the anterior, 

 and more than the last four joints of the hind tarsi darkened ; pubescence 

 very slight. 



Wings as in the male. Thoracal squamae perhaps narrower. 



Length about 1 2-5 mm. (^ , or 1 1 mm. ? . 



This species is closely allied to those of the S. fiavipes group, and like 

 them has no outstanding hairs on the back of the head standing at a right 

 angle to the eye, and has not even the very short postocular cihation which 

 occurs in S. fiavipes and its allies ; it is, moreover, distinguished from them 

 by the ocelli being placed higher up on the frons ; the male may be known 

 by its large size and its entirely orange legs from all except S. albibarbus ?, 

 and the golden orange pubescence which almost obscures the disc of the 

 abdomen will distinguish it from that species, while the female also has 

 even the coxae orange (which distinguishes it from the S. fiavipes group), 

 and has beautiful orange-red markings about the base of the abdomen and 

 along the sidemargins of the third and fourth segments, and also has 

 the humeri and the upper margin of the mesopleurae yellowish ; the extent 

 of the bare polished middle part of the frons is less than in S. fiavipes and 

 its allies (including S. alhibarhus ? ). 



S. bipunctatus is a species which I have never seen alive, though 

 Colonel Yerbury has taken it in numerous localities in Britain, from Tor 

 Cross in Devonshire to Nethy Bridge in Inverness, and has also taken it 

 in Phcenix Park, Dublin. Altogether I have records from Devonshire 

 (several localities), Somerset (Shepton Montague), Hampshire (New 

 Forest), Sussex (Iford), Suffolk (several localities), Herts (Felden), 

 Hereford (Tarrington), Shropshire (Neach Hall), and Durham (Hesleden), 

 while in Scotland I have records from Jedburgh, Aberlady, and Nethy 



