7. SARGUS 179 



9 . Very much resembling" the male. Frons broad, being fully a quarter the 

 width of the head ; ocelli equidistant, with the front one more than a third 

 down the frons ; white spots small but sharply defined, and when viewed in 

 profile this part of the frons is not much inflated but sufiiciently for the white 

 spots to be conspicuous ; pubescence of frons whitish at the occii^ut, but thence 

 to the front ocellus rather long, black, and bent forwards, after which, as 

 far as the antennae, it is much shorter brown and upturned. ; face with dark 

 brown upturned pubescence, but the narrow sides of the mouth with short 

 whitish-grey pubescence, which becomes longer on the jowls ; pubescence on 

 the lower part of the back of the head pale but soon dying out and succeeded 

 by a shorter blackish ciliation, and the pubescence on the slightly inflated 

 shining black upper part by no means in a single line but rather dense 

 and fairly conspicuous, and at first glance appearing to be blackish, but when 

 seen from in front with a downward sloping view in a good light appearing 

 to be pale grey on at least the back part. 



Thorax and scutellum brilliant green, with depressed whitish incon- 

 spicuous pubescence. 



Abdomen burnished coppery ; pubescence when seen from behind long 

 and broadly whitish at the sides of the three basal segments, but short and 

 brownish black on the last three segments except for a few whitish hairs at 

 the corners of the fourth segment. Lamellae of the ovipositor thin, three- 

 jointed, and black, with pale hairs. 



Legs orange ; anterior femora with more than the middle half brownish 

 black to a rather undefined extent, and with the upper side of the middle 

 femora remaining indefinitely orange for nearly the basal half ; anterior tibiae 

 indefinitely blackish brown on the slightly dilated apical half except at the 

 extreme tip ; front tarsi obscurely blackish except at just the base, middle 

 tarsi similar but with all the basal joint orange ; hind femora with a less 

 defined brown middle darkening which leaves the basal third obscurely, 

 and the apical third more distinctly, orange ; hind tibiae all brownish though the 

 basal half is more orange than the apical half ; hind tarsi brownish, but orange 

 just about the base. Pubescence behind the front femora very slight and pale. 



Wings with a slight brownish tinge all about the middle which is diftused 

 outwards but which leaves the basal third of the wing more hyaline ; stigma 

 and all the end of the subcostal cell faintly blackish brown. Squamae 

 obscurely blackish. Halteres yellow. 



Length about 6-5 mm. 



This species is described from a male taken at Dolgelley on July 26, 

 and a female on July 24, 1888. I have seen a very similar female which 

 was taken by Miss M. A. Sharp at Milford-on-Sea in June 1904, which 

 however has the front femora black with only just the base and tip 

 orange, while the posterior femora and all the tibiae are only very slightly 

 obscured, though all the orange coloring of the legs is more obscure than 

 usual ; it also has the wings less generally inf uscated, though the stigma 

 and the tip of the subcostal cell are rather conspicuously blackish. If 

 these specimens belong to the true S. minimus of Zetterstedt (of which he 

 knew only one male and two females) the species may have the legs 

 brown with all the knees and the basal joint of the posterior tarsi 

 (especially in the female), obscurely yellowish. 



The absence of the postocular ciliation, which occurs in 8. iridatus, 

 cupravius, and nuheculosus, at once disposes of its being a small pale 

 variety of any one of them ; the size, besides other details, at once disposes 

 of S, bipunctatus and S. albibarhus, and therefore it must belong to the 

 S.flavipes group; from all the males of that group (as I understand them) 

 the much paler legs of S. minimus at once distinguish it, while the female 

 of S. minimus has more darkened legs than any of the other females. The 

 doubtful points about S. minimus are the small size and the possible 



