7. SARGUS 



185 



Fio. 139. — Sargus iridaUis 

 S. X 14. 



down to tlie antennae, where it is rather wider than at the vertex ; there is a 



small but conspicuous white spot against each eye a little above the antennae, 



and the space between these spots is obscurely brownish ; the frons has no 



bare polished space down its middle, but bears all over rather abundant 



moderately long pubescence, which is brownish 



about the vertex but blackish below, or is all 



Ibrown, and which slopes forward on the upper 



part until after the ocelli, but is almost erect 



but slightly sloping upwards on the lower half ; 



ocelli placed at some distance from the vertex 



and the front one, which is remote from the 



other two, placed at nearly half-way between 



the vertex and the white spots ; frons a little 



elevated above the level of the eyes on the lower 



quarter ; proboscis orange. Eyes bare ; facets 



only gradually and inconspicuously diminishing 



in size towards the back and lower parts ; in life 



the iridescent band lies (according to Lundbeck) 



above the middle of the eye with its end thus reaching the frons _ somewhat 



above the Avhite spot. Antennae short, dull blackish ; basal joint with 



short black bristly hairs ; second joint similar, but with longer hairs on its 



upper side ; third joint as deep as long, bare and only indistinctly annulated, 



with the last annulation longer tlian the others and bearing at its dorsal 



base a long thin arista, which is twice as long as the antennae and which 



bears two or three plumose hairs close to its base. 



Thorax and scutellum brilliant green or blue green, rather sparsely though 

 not very finely punctate, clothed on the disc with inconspicuous though fairly 

 abundant almost erect pale brownish-yellow pubescence, which forms a 

 slight crest near the front of the thorax, and which is formed of hairs of 

 inconspicuously different lengths, the short rather denser pubescence being 

 about half the length of the longer pubescence ; pleurae more bluish black, 

 polished and bare on all the middle and upper parts of the mesopleurae, but 

 bearing rather long sloping whitish-yellow pubescence on the rest, and with a 

 few rather long pale hairs near the humeri. 



Abdomen shining purplish or purplish green, but ranging (in immature 

 specimens) to greenish brown, rather dulled by dense punctuation, some- 

 what club-shaped, as it gradually increases in width from the base to beyond 

 the middle of the fourth segment, after which it gradually decreases to near 

 the end of the fifth segment and then curves round sharply to the end of the 

 fifth segment ; sixth segment scarcely half so wide as the end of the fifth. 



Fio. 140. — Sargus iridatus S 



bluish black. Pubescence pale, erect, and not scarce about the sides, longer 

 about the basal corners, but very short, very dense, rather depressed, and 

 black on all the disc. Belly shining black, with universal not short but 

 rather sloping whitish pubescence. Genitalia black, rather conspicuously 

 protruded from the small sixth segment, and showing a pair of elongate fringed 

 black dorso-lateral lamellae and several lateral plates. 



Legs dull black, with the extreme knees inconspicuously ferruginous ; 

 dilatation of the apical half of the front tibiae and the kink just below the 

 middle of the hind tibiaj slight. Pubescence slight, but there is little pale 

 fringe behind the anterior, and in front of the hind, femora. 



Wings (fig. 140) sufiitsed all over with a brownish tinge, and with the 

 stigma and the subcostal space above and near it distinctly pale brown ; second 



