176 STRATIOMYID.E 



the true male of S. alhibarhus ; it is labelled " St Moritz, Becker," and is therefore 

 probably the species mentioned by Becker in Berl. ent. Zeitschr., xxxi., p. 97 (1897) ; 

 it has the frons at the vertex about one-fifteenth the width of the head and running 

 down almost equal to the front ocellus, after which it widens to the antennae where 

 it is about one-quarter the width of the head ; the bare middle part below the front 

 ocellus extends widely up to the front ocellus (very differently from ;S'. hipunctatus) ; 

 the white spots are small ; the front ocellus is placed at two-fifths down the frons ; 

 vertex black haired but with a few tawny hairs behind it on the occiput ; no out- 

 standing postocular fringe (as in »S', cuprarins, etc.), but there is the usual fringe 

 close against the back of the eyes, which is all black, fairly long on the lower part 

 and obvious though short and stubby on the upper part ; pubescence on the face 

 black but rather rusty and short, rusty black on the narrow sides of the mouth, and 

 1 )rownish grey on the jowls near the front lower corner of the eyes ; antennae dull 

 black. Thorax brilliant green with pubescence entirely black on the disc, but rusty 

 black on the upper margin of the mesopleurae, while the long ei'ect pubescence on the 

 pro thorax and the shorter pubescence on the metapleurse are darkish tawny ; humeri 

 with a small yellowish spot. Abdomen duller green because of the coarse dense 

 l)unctuation, and with a coppery tinge partly caused by the abundant long tawny 

 jnibescence which broadly clothes the sides of the three basal segments, while a 

 shorter tawny pubescence extends down the sidemargins of the fourth and fifth 

 segments and round on to the hindmargin of the fifth segment ; sixth segment 

 small and shining green, curved downwards along with the lai'ge black genitalia ; 

 belly blue, with rather abundant depressed pale grey pubescence. Legs red 

 orange, coxce blackish, but the posterior pairs with brownish tints ; front coxae 

 with mainly black pubescence, but with a patch of pale pubescence on the lower 

 part in front ; last four joints of the hind tarsi blackened above, and the same 

 joints of the front tarsi obscured above, while those joints of the middle tarsi are 

 only very slightly obscured. Wings conspicuously infuscated all oyer, but most 

 strongly about the middle and more orange about the basal third ; stigma and the 

 space above inconspicuously brown. Squamae pale orange, with orange fringes, 

 I have also described in this work an English male under the name of *S'. albiharhvs i 

 which does not accurately agree with this specimen, but which must remain doubtful 

 until more material can be obtained. 



aS^. angustifrons Loew is known from one female only which was taken neai 

 Vienna before 1855, and which only differs from »S'. /a yi/:>es by the narrower frons : 

 Schiner declined to acknowledge it as distinct from S.JlaviiJes, and the fact of nc 

 more specimens having been found in such a well-worked locality in the subsequent 

 fifty years seems to make its distinctness very doubtful, and I expect it is the same 

 as *S'. albibarbus. S. ceriferus Jaennicke was described from a single female taken at 

 Genoa, to which individual specimen Loew eleven years previously had refused tc 

 give a name on the ground that it required more confirmation and that it was verj 

 near S. albibarbus, of which I now think it must be a synonym or variety : it is saic 

 to have the front fifth of the frons waxy white and (according to Loew) tne sides oi 

 the thorax with a fine dirty whitish line, and altogether short whitish pubescence 

 legs pale yellow, but with a peculiar brown streak (Loew) or ring (Jaennicke) or 

 the upper side of the hind femora ; antennae yellow on the two basal joints. S 

 tubercidatus Loew is known from a single female from Nubia which has a co_mplet( 

 white cross-band on the frons instead of the usual pair of spots, and which has 

 conspicuous white side-spots at the abdominal incisures. *S'. chrysis Loew was 

 described from two females and perhaps one male, from Nubia, and they als( 

 have an entire white frontal band, the side lines of the thorax brownish yellow, al 

 the pubescence of the abdomen yellowish, and the abdomen carmine red on the foui 

 middle segments, and Bezzi has since recorded this species as occurring in Eritrea. 



If S. angustifrons, S. albibarbus, and S. ceriferns are synonyms, strict priorit;^ 

 would require the use of the name S. angustifrons, but as S. angustifrons in thi; 

 case would be incorrectly as well as insufficiently described and S. albibarbu 

 is well described on the s.ime page I adopt the latter name. 



It may be noted that Loew on page 136 of his paper on Sargus in Verh. zool.-bot 

 Wien, V. (1855) persistently referred to S.flavipes under the appellation of S. pallipe^ 

 From the association of this species with cow-dung it is more likely to be thi 

 species noticed by Reaumur in Ins., iv., p. 59, Table 22, figs. 5-8, than .S'. bipunx^tatu 

 (Reaumuri Meig.) and Reaumur's figure of the natural size also agrees bette 

 with it. 



