190 STRATIOMYID.E 



cabbage {Brassica ra]3CL). It is recorded from almost all Europe, while 

 G. speciosa seems to be confined to Central Europe. 



Synom/my. — Scopoli's description (1763) is quite distinct enougli, the only point 

 which could raise a doubt being " Alse hyalinge,'' and ever since 1817 his name has 

 been universally accepted, except that Loew described a Sargus azureus, which he him- 

 self suspected of being a mere variation in 1840 and which he suppressed altogether 

 in 1855. There can be no doubt but that Musca cicur of Moses Harris is a synonym. 



9. MICROCHRYSA. 



Mlcrochrysa Loew, Verb, zool.-bot., Wien, v., 146 (1855). 



Small broad brilliantly shining green flies. 



Head broader than the thorax; face small and not bulging, inconspicuously 

 pubescent ; jowls very small ; back of the head hollowed out in the male but with 

 an eye-collar in the female ; vertex rather elevated ; ocelli equidistant. Eyes 

 practically bare, touching for a long distance in the male, and in that sex with the 

 facets on the upper part conspicuously enlarged, but widely separated and the facets 

 all equal in the female. Antennas (fig. 143) moderate in jengtli ; basal joint small ; 

 second joint cup-shaped, much broader than the basal joint ; thnxl joint large, and 

 Avith four distinct annulations, and bearing the long thin arista just above its tip. 



Thorax longer than broad, but very slightly increasing in width towards the hind 

 part • pubescence dense but short and inconspicuous ; mesopleurte with a bare 

 polished space on the front part. 



Abdomen short broad ovate, very little longer than broad. 



Legs simple, or with the tibiae slightly dilated on the apical half. 



Wings (fig. 142) with the true Sargvs venation, in which the radial vein appears 



Fig. 142. — Microehrysa flavicornis S- x 12. 



to be the first of two forks from the cubital vein ; stigma distinct though pale and 

 sharply margined by the radial and subcostal veins ; cubital vein not in the least 

 arched and consequently the cubital cell short ; discal vein very_ faint before the 

 discal cell ; veinlets from the discal cell more widely rayed out than in Sargus, fainter 

 and less complete, the middle one being the strongest ; the wings being altogether 

 l)roader than in Sargus cause all the three basal cells (especially the anal cell) to be 

 much broader in comparison. Squamae (alar) with a short marginal fringe; 

 thoracal pair forming an ovate disc which has a long conspicuous fringe and is 

 pubescent all over. 



This genus may easily be known by its small size, short broad abdomen, 

 and bare eyes which touch in the male for a considerable space. 



Microehrysa is composed of a few closely allied species which occur in 

 Europe, South Asia, Africa (Caffraria), and both North and South America, 

 while our common M. polita has a very wide distribution in Europe and 

 North America. The larvse are related to those of Sargus and live in cow- 

 dung or decaying vegetable matter, and the perfect insects frequent 

 gardens. 



Synonymy. — I have dealt with the generic names of Chrysomyia Macq. and 

 Chloromyia Dune, in the synonymical notes under Ghloromyia, and have there 

 proved that Rondani's genus Clorisotna (which he subsequently changed to 



