196 



STRATIOMYID^ 



BERING. 



Pig. 144. — Beris MorrisU S- x 7J. 



Abdomen with seven obvious segments. Antennae with 8-annulated 

 flagellum. "Wings with the lower cross- vein absent ; discal cell emitting 

 only two veinlets irrespective of the upper branch of the postical vein, 

 or occasionally emitting a third incomplete veinlet (fig. 150). Scutellum 

 usually armed with four or more marginal spines. 



Antennae with the third joint (= flagellum) long and normally 8-annulated, but 

 without any trace of a terminal style or arista. 



Thorax but little arched. Metapleura? with short shelter hairs over the stigma. 

 Scutellum with normally four or six marginal spines (except 

 in Allognosta) which are part of the integument of the 

 scutellum, as is proved by the pubescence extending on them 

 up to the tip (fig. 145), but these spines vary in individuals 

 of the same sj^ecies from four up to eight or nine and are not 

 necessarily symmetrical. 



Abdomen with at least seven obviously distinct segments, 

 plump and flat but with almost parallel sides (broad ovate 

 in Acanthomj/ia). 



Legs simple, rather stout in all the European genera ; 



basal joint of the hind tarsi usually dilated in the male ; 



in the European species, except on the middle tibiae in 



Fig. 145.— 

 Beris chalybeata S • 



tibise without spurs 

 Aca)ithom;/ia. 



Wings with the radial vein very short and ending near the tip of the subcostal 

 and curved upwards so as to include tlie con.si)icuous dark stigma which lies between 

 the ends of the subcostal and radial veins and includes the whole of the marginal cell, 

 and this stigma is placed soon after the middle of the costa ; cubital vein forked, with 

 its upper branch about half as long as the lower one, and both branches ending in 

 the wingmargin well before the tip of the wing ; discal cell hexagonal (unless the 

 two veinlets issuing from it touch each other at their bases), with its base opposite 



