1. XYLOPHAGUS 251 



ends in a pair of small ovate divergent yellowish brown lamellae, but these 

 elongate tubular segments are telescopic and may vary in length to almost 

 any extent. Pubescence inconspicuous, depressed, and dark, except on_ the 

 basal segment and on the sides of the second segment where it is a slight, 

 pale, and more erect ; in certain lights this pale pubescence continues on to 

 the third and fourth segments but is there depressed and rather darker ; all 

 other pubescence as in the male. Belly less shining ; fifth and sixth segments 

 (and the fourth somewhat) flattened against the dorsal plate. 



Legs distinguished from those of the male by the absence of any darkening 

 at the tip of the hind femora ; hind tibia? varying from dark orange to all 

 blackish. 



Wings with the stigma blackish and followed below by a brown cloud which 

 is about e(iually long in the marginal and submarginal cells, but below these 

 cells the cloud is reduced to the end triangle of the upper basal cell, the basal 

 third of the discal cell, just the base of the fourth posterior cell, the borders 

 of the upturned part of' the upper branch of the postical vein and down its 

 lower branch, and there is clouding at the wingmargin on the lower third of the 

 postical cell and at the margin of the fourth posterior cell, and again on both 

 sides of the veinlets closing the discal cell so that that cell has a large pellucid 

 kernel ; the underside of the stem of the cubital vein is clouded as far asthe 

 pellucid piece, and so is the fork of the cubital vein ; but all these cloudings 

 may be less extended and at the same time more pronounced ; the two vein- 

 lets forming the base of the discal cell almost equal in length ; small cross- 

 vein almost (or even distinctly) existing, but sometimes the discal cross-vein 

 barely present, owing to the upper ])art of the discal cell almost touching 

 the cubital vein ; stem of the cubital vein just about as long as its lower 

 branch or slightly longer. Scpiamaj and halteres as in the male. 



Length about 9-5 mm. ( cJ ) or 13 mm. ( $ ). 



This species varies a little in the distinctness of any dull stripes on the 

 thorax of the male which however are always faint, and occasionally in the 

 hindmargins of the abdominal segments exhibiting traces of pale coloring 

 especially beneath ; both cross-veins vary in distinctness, the discal one 

 being sometimes very short, while the lower one is usually hardly existing ; 

 the extent of the cloudings on the wings also varies considerably. I find 

 very little value in Schiner's character of the relative lengths of the stein 

 of the cubital vein and the lower branch of its fork, as usually the stem is 

 slightly the longer but not unusually the two are almost equal in length. 

 The only other recorded Paleearctic species, X. cinctus, may easily be 

 distinguished by the shorter basal joint of its antennse and by the red- 

 banded abdomen of the female, but there was an apparently undescribed 

 species in Kowarz's collection which has the antennse more like those of 

 X. ater but has the frons more shining and the thorax more dull. I think 

 that two North American specimens in Bigot's collection from Washington 

 under the name of X. rcjlecfens Walker are distinct from, though closely 

 allied to, X. ater ; the male has much more clouded wings and a duller 

 frons in front, while the female (which may well belong to a_ different 

 species) has a narrow shining black middle line on the thorax instead of 

 the two separated shining lines. 



X. ater is an uncominon British insect, though it can almost always be 

 found in small numbers in some localities. There is a decaying tree near 

 the village of Bank in the New Forest upon (or near) which Dr I). Sharp 

 can depend upon taking a few specimens every smumer, and Colonel 

 Yerbury and Mr G. C. Bignell have found it not uncommon about Ivy- 

 bridge and Plymbridge and the Avon Valley in South Devonshire. 

 Colonel Yerbury has also taken it at the Black Mountain in Hereford- 



