178 STRATIOMYID.E 



and that he had also taken a female there with the immaculate femora on 

 the previous July 27. I have made further notes on Wahlberg's S. rujipes 

 in the synonymy below. 



S. rufipes has occurred (as mentioned above) in the Forest of Dean in 

 Gloucestershire and at Cusop Dingle in Herefordshire, while I consider a 

 male as belonging to this species which was taken by Dr J. H. Wood at 

 Svvillgrove in Herefordshire on September 17, 1897, and also a male 

 taken by Colonel Yerbury at The Mound in Sutherland on August 4, 1900, 

 and probably a male taken by myself at Coniston in Lancashire on July 

 19, 1876, a female taken by Mr C. J. Wainwright at Boscastle in Cornwall, 

 a female taken by Colonel Yerbury at Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, on 

 August 10, 1901, a small male taken at Boat o' Garten in Inverness 

 (possibly S. nitidus as it has the anterior tibise obscurely tinged with 

 orange on the basal third), and a female in C. W. Dale's collection (now at 

 Oxford) labelled "Glanville's Wootton, 8/8/91," besides stray specimens 

 without history in the British Museum and in the old Babington collec- 

 tion of the Cambridge Museum. 



Synonymi/. — The only record of S. rufipes is that of Walilberg, who caught it on 

 the leaves of shrubs at Quickjock in Lapland on July 13, 1843 (he described it in 

 1854) ; he professed to know both sexes, but if my recognition of it is correct he 

 could only have taken the female as he says " pedibus in utroque sexu totis rufo- 

 " testaceis — nee pedibus maris femoribus tibiarumque apice nigris " ; the sexes in 

 Sargus are not conspicuously distinct, and I think Wahlberg may have made a 

 mistake in thinking that he had both sexes, especially as in the species which he 

 described at the same time {Pachygaster orhitalis) he probably had both sexes while 

 he thought he had only the female, I am led to this conclusion by the fact that 

 Wahlberg's species has remained unrecogTiised ever since, and it is curious that 

 Meigen in his original _ description made a similar mistake over Sargus flavi2)es, 

 which however was quicklj^ recognised whfen the species was found in numbers. 

 Zetterstedt's diagnosis in Dipt. Scand., xii., 4558 (1855) is not an exact equivalent 

 of Wahlberg's either in Avords or meaning, and it is almost certain that his Var. b. of 

 S.flavipes in Dipt. Scand., viii., 2964 (1849) refers to this species. It is however 

 possible that the species I have described as S. albibarhus .? may be the true male of 

 aS'. rufipes. 



5. S. minimus Zetterstedt. Small species. Legs mainly orange in 

 both sexes. Wings without any definite cloud. 



An unsatisfactory but possibly distinct small species. 



c? . Frons purplish, similar in shape and pubescence to that of S. fiavipes, but the 

 whitish spots are large and obscure (immature?); vertex more brownish- 

 yellow haired ; back of the head as in S.fiavipes. 



Thorax purplish, with greenish reflections on the back part and on the 

 scutellum ; pubescence all pale brownish yellow unless there are some 

 indistinct blackish hairs on the middle hind part and on the middle basal 

 part of the scutellum ; the short pubescence on the front part of the thorax 

 appears to be more sloping than usual. 



Abdomen (immature) brownish purple ; pubescence resembling that of 

 S.fiavijyes. 



Legs all yellow with a slight brownish tinge • last four joints of the front 

 and the last three of the middle tarsi obscured, and the last four joints of 

 the hind tarsi almost blackish above ; coxse, and front and hind trochanters, 

 brownish black, middle trochanters yellowish ; front femora slightly obscured 

 postero-ventrally ; middle tibiae slightly obscured about the tip. 



Wings (immature) a little smoky ; membrane waved rather than ribbed, 

 Halteres with yellowish-white knobs. 



