172 STRATIOMYID^ 



? . In the present state of knowledge of the yellow-legged species of Sargus it is 

 impossible to allocate a female with certainty to the male just described. 

 Tliere is, however, a female in the old collection of the British Museum whicli 

 is without history but obviously British, and which possesses some slight 

 characters which may distinguish it from S.fiavvpes and S.rnfipes. It has 

 the front femora without any dark marking, which would distinguish it from 

 S. Jlavipes, while it has the frons slightly wider than in >S'. rufipes and the 

 wings more infuscated especially about the discal cell and stigma ; it is also 

 rather larger than any specimen I have seen of those two species. 

 Length about 10-5 mm. 



This species is a most unsatisfactory one, but the male specimen 

 described is widely different from any British species except >S^. bipundatus, 

 and it is with that I have mainly compared it. As to any European allies 

 I have given copious notes under the synonymy of S. Jlavipes. 



S. alhiharhus ? was taken by Colonel Yerbury in the Avon Valley in 

 extreme South Devon on July 7, 1896, when a single male was captured, 

 which is now in the British Museum. 



ySynonymy. — >S'. alliharhvs was described in 1855 from a single specimen of 

 uncertain' sex taken in Dalmatia ; *S'. angvstifrons (a possible synonym) was described 

 at the same time from a single female taken near Vienna, and in the same paper a 

 single doubtful female was noted Avhich was subsequently (1866) called *S'. ceriferns 

 by Jaennicke. Since that time not one of these species has been recorded, but I have 

 dealt with them in some detail in the synonymical notes under S.flavipes. Further- 

 more, it is of course possible that the male now described may be the true male of 

 ,S'. rufipes Wahlberg, which has not been recorded since its capture in 1843 until in 

 the present work. 



3. S. flavipes Meigen. Male with the legs black but broadly orange 

 at the knees and at the base of the hind tibige and tarsi ; abdomen with 

 the short pubescence on the disc mainly black. Female with the legs 

 orange except for a blackish marking about the middle of the front 

 femora. 



$ . Face shining blackish green, rounded and a little bulging, with almost parallel 

 sides, and bearing abundant upturned black pubescence; mouth extending 

 half-way up the face, and the consequently narrow space between this part of 

 the mouth and the eyes dullish black and bearing short black pubescence ; 

 jowls shining blacky very narrow, but with some moderately long brownish 

 grey pubescence which extends a short distance up the very slightly inflated 

 lower quarter of the back of the head, but then dies out and leaves the rest 

 of the back of the head hollowed out and with only a very short close blackish 

 or (on the lower part) greyish ciliation immediately against the eyes, which 

 becomes shorter still and black and stubby on the upper part ; vertex blackish 

 green until after the ocelli, but below them the frons is shining green or blue 

 and widens rapidly dorrn to the antennte, where it is more than four times as 

 wide as its narrowest part and about twice as wide as at its widest part o\\ 

 the vertex ; a little before the antennae there is a small but conspicuous white 

 spot on each side against the eye, and above these spots the frons is blue and 

 punctate on all the sides, but the frons is polished and bare down a broad 

 middle space from the ocelli to near the white spots ; the lower third of 

 the frons distinctly bulges out beyond the eyes when seen in profile ; front 

 ocellus considerably separated from the other two and placed at rather more 

 than one-third down the frons ; pubescence on the vertical portion of the 

 frons rather long and abundant about the ocelli and pointed forwards, 

 brownish yellow on the upper part, but blackish on all the frons below the 

 front ocellus and pointed upwards; proboscis bright orange. Eyes bare; 

 facets very gradually decreasing in size towards the lower part ; in life 

 (according to Lundbeck) the eyes are greenish and unicolorous. Antennje 



