208 STRATIOMYID^ 



Anteniiie (fig. 148) sliglitly sliorter than the head ; third joint barely one and 

 a half times as long as the two basal joints together, rather incrassate about 

 its base but after that conical and almost pointed. 



Thorax brighter green ; humeri with only very small 

 orange points ; postalar calli not at all pale. Scutellum 

 rather more pubescent. 



Legs with the base of all the femora yellow, and 

 this colour extends indeterminately along the upper 

 and hinder sides almost to the tip but more obscurely 

 after about the middle, so that when seen from above 

 the pale base of all the femora and the conspicuously 

 blackened large prseapical part become notable. Tro- 

 chanters and tip of the coxse yellow • anterior tibiae 

 jusdpM^7''^x20.* yellow on the basal two-fifths, and the hind pair on the 

 basal fifth, while the rest of the tibiae is only brown 

 (not black) ; ankles and the basal joint of the anterior tarsi until near the 

 tip yellowish ; basal joint of hind tarsi brownish yellow with the tip rather 

 dai'kened. 



Wings clearer, more yellow about the base. Halteres yellow. 

 Length about 6 mm. 



This species is extremely closely allied to B. genictdata, and with the 

 unsatisfactory material before me I should have hesitated to separate it, 

 but Haliday seems to liave never acquiesced in the union of the two 

 species though he has said but little about it, and Wahlberg (who was a 

 most careful worker) deliberately distinguished the two even after Loew 

 had united them. I therefore keep the two species separate and call 

 attention in my synonymical notes to the confusion which has arisen 

 between them ; I only hope that further studies will distinguish them as 

 thoroughly as B. chalyheata is now distinguished, though quite recently 

 that perfectly distinct species had been confounded with them. 



B. fuscipes is known to me from very few specimens. I have made my 

 description of the male from a specimen in perfect condition which was 

 taken by Colonel Yerbury at Porthcawl in Glamorgan on July 12, 1906, 

 and he also took a female at Kenmare, Co. Kerry, on June 30, 1901; Mr 

 C. (x. Lamb took a female at Padstow in Cornwall in July 1904, and Mr 

 W. Holland took one at Kingswear near Oxford on June 27, 1902; besides 

 these specimens I possess an old female without history, and a doubtful 

 male taken by me at Aberlady on June 27, 1873. According to descrip- 

 tions B. fuscipes occurs in North and Middle Europe. 



Siinonymy. — B. fuscipes was originally described by Meigen from a male sent to 

 him from England by Dr Leach, and his very imperfect description seems to apply 

 to the species now described better than to any other as "Fiihler...nicht ganz so 

 " lang als der Kopf " and " pedibus f uscis : tibiis basi flavis '' hardly apply to B. 

 genictdata ; I have seen the probable original type in Meigen 's collection at Paris, 

 and can state that in general appearance it resembles B. genicidata but has the legs 

 more brownish, the hind tibial and tarsi being dark brown, the basal joint of the 

 hind tarsi long and equally rather thin, the thorax rather bright green with the 

 postalar calli slightly brown, the genitalia large, but unfortunately the antennse 

 have both lost the last joint so that that character cannot be utilised ; on the whole 

 I should consider it a male of the species now described. A female in Kowarz's 

 collection (labelled B. fuscijies) from " Biirtfa " in Hungary has also unfortunately 

 lost the third joint of both antennae, but is a larger specimen with the hind tiioiiy 

 darker (but far from black) and the middle femora paler. I have dealt with the 

 synonymy in further detail under B. geniculata, but until the species has been taken 

 in larger numbers its distinctness must remain an open question, but its acceptance 

 by such entomologists as Haliday and Wahlberg after its attempted suppression by 



* In this figure the position of the head apparently reduces the comparative length of the basal joints. 



