252 LEPTID.E 



shire and at The j\Iound in Sutherland, while he and others have taken 

 several specimens at Nethy Bridge in Inverness. Dr F. Buchanan White 

 found the larvae at Braemar in 1873, and he said (Entom. Month. Mag., 

 xiii., 162, 1876) "The larva lives between the bark and the wood of dead 

 " birch stumps, almost invariably in company with the larva of Pyrochroa 

 " pedinicornis, on which it probably feeds, though I never saw it attacking 

 " that or any other insect " ; and " till I reared the imago I considered the 

 " larvae that I found to belong to the same species as those of Jl. cinctus, 

 " to which they have a very great resemblance. The habits and times of 

 " appearance of X ater are the same as those of X cinctv.s " ; through the 

 kindness of Mr Alex. Eodger, Curator of the Perth Museum, I have seen 

 some of Dr White's original specimens and can confirm their name. 

 Previous to this Damianitsch in 1868 (Verb. zool.-bot. AVien., xviii., 118) 

 described the metamorphoses and figured the larva which he found under 

 the bark of an Alder {Alnus), and he then stated that the larva lived for 

 ten months on earth and pieces of bark, and he suspected that it merely 

 lived in the company of Pyrochroa coccinea and not on it. Zetterstedt 

 (Dipt. Scand., viii., 2947) said "Larvae hujus speciei in lavvis Pywchrom 

 " coccinew praedantes vivunt, teste D. Drewsen," and in saying this he 

 probably relied upon Drewsen's note in Kroyer's Naturhist. Tidsskr., iv., 

 103, in which he stated that they feed upon the larvae of Pyrochroa 

 coccinea and Tipala. Dr Sharp has informed me that he has found the 

 larvae in various trees in the New Forest, such as Oak (Quercus), and 

 Fir {Pinus), but most commonly on Beech {Fagus) and on Aspen {Populvs 

 tremvia) at Nethy Bridge, while X. cinctus appears to be confined to 

 Scotch Fir (Pinus sylvestris) ; he also states that the Oak specimens prey 

 on the larva of the rare beetle Phlceotrya. X. ater is recorded from 

 Lapland to Middle Europe. My records of the perfect insect range from 

 May 16th to July. 



Syiwnymy. — Meigen described this species in 1804, tliough it is curious that he 

 subsequently ascribed it to Fabricius whose description appeared in 1805 ; there 



iim, as he says " Sie ist 

 mit zwei scliwarzen 



cannot be much doubt but that Meigen had a female before 

 " gljinzend schwarz. . . . Das Bruststiik ist grauschillernd, 

 " Riikkenlinien." In 1820 he altered this to " Eiikkenschild de.s Miinnchens 

 " durcliaus glanzend schwarz ; des Weibchens mit drei breiten greisen Striemen," 

 which fully answers to the description I have given. X. compeditvs, of which the 

 description was communicated to Meigen by Wiedemann, is probably a synonym 

 of the female because of " Ueberall glanzend schwarz " and " Auf dem Riikkenschilde 

 " drei graue Langslinien " though various details do not quite agree ; it is i)robably 

 not a synonym of X. cinctus as Wiedemann would hardly fail to have noticed the 

 short basal joint of the antennae. Empis siihulatd of Panzer (1798) is commonly given 

 as a synonym of X. cinctus of which it is possibly the male, but the figure is very 

 suggestive of X. ater ; as however it is impossible to prove which species it referred 

 to it is not worth reconsideration. 



2. X. cinctus DeGeer. Antennae with the basal joint rather globular, 

 not much longer than the second. Thorax dull except about the humeri. 

 Abdomen of the female reddish all about the middle. 



The male is rather like X. ater, but both sexes are easily 

 distinguished by the diagnostic characters. 



(J . Head broader and flatter than in X. ater ; f rons broad, being more than a 

 quarter the width of 'the head, dull grey all across the middle, but shining 



