256 LEPTID^ 



VERMILEONINiE. 



Antennte with the third joint not flagelliform but bearing a long apical 

 arista. Face not at all socketed. Eyes separated in both sexes. Wings 

 with the cubital fork wide open. Alula absent. 



Head transverse and quite bare except for a slight pubescence on the back and 

 to a moderate extent in Lamprmnyia on the lower part of the back. Face quite 

 bare, or (in Lampromj/ia sericea) microscopically pubescent, without any trace of 

 eyemargins or side-cheeks or a socketed epistoma, almost flat (but slightly arched on 

 the lower part in Vermileo), while in Lampromyia it is steadily and considerably 

 produced with an even surface to the front mouth part where it spreads out like 

 a shield over the small sides of the mouth ; in Vermileo the frons is about one- 

 sixth the width of the head and has parallel sides, the face being if anything 

 narrower than the frons and also continued downwards with parallel sides ; 

 in Lampromyia sericea (from South Africa) the frons is narrower but still with 

 parallel sides, and the face is twice as wide ; in L. jyallida the frons is wide 

 at the vertex, being a quarter the width of the head, but contracts down to the 

 transverse suture just above the antennae, where it is still more than half its 

 width at the vertex, while below the antennae the produced face gradually 

 widens again but not quite to the width of the vertex ; frons with a slight 

 channel down each side, and in Vermileo with a well-defined narrow transverse 

 channel a little above the antennae, but in Lajnjn-cnnyia this transverse channel is 

 less distinct ; the frons is I believe equally broad in both sexes of Vermileo and 

 Lam]>rom>/ia pallida, \mt indging irom the com\Mvative narrowness of the frons in 

 the male of L. sericea it is probable that it is broader in the female of that species ; 

 jowls almost absent ; back of the head very little inflated even on the lower part ; 

 ocelli three on a slightly raised space ; vertex in Lampromyia distinctly sunken 

 between the eyes. Proboscis rather large and fleshy in Vermileo, but in Lampromyia 

 extraordinary elongate, thin, horny, and without obvious sucker-flaps (fig. 168), being 

 extended downwards almost perpendicularly (or rather drawn back) for quite twice 

 the length of the head and thorax together ; pali»i rather small but slightly porrect 

 in Vermileo, or rather long thin porrect and slightly clavate but not conspicuous 

 and reaching as far forward as the produced mouth-edge with some sparse 

 long pubescence beneath about the base in Lamprc/myia. Eyes bare, usually 

 (always ?) equal in both sexes and the facets all equal. Antennie in Vermileo 

 with the third joint small, shorter than the first joint, simple, and subtriangular, 

 and bearing a moderately thick jointed apical arista ; but in Lampromyia 

 sericea with the third joint elongate conical and indistinctly 4-5-annulated, and 

 bearing a thin pointed apical arista which is longer than the third joint ; first joint 

 of the antennae rather cylindrical ; in the only specimen of L. pallida that I possess 

 the antennae are missing. 



Thorax in Vermileo all brightly shining and absolutely bare even on the nieta- 

 pleurae, bright ochreous with black stripes • but in Lampromyia dull light reddish 

 brown with darker stripes, and the disc of the thorax and the metapleurae apparently 

 not absolutely bare. Scutellum small, Avith a flat disc ; metanotum large, and in 

 all the specimens (three) of Lampromyia that I possess with curious depressions on 

 the back part as though it had shrunken when dried. 



Abdomen long and thin (like Lep>togaster), with the end more or less curved down, 

 and with seven obvious segments besides the genitalia, three or four times as long 

 as the thorax, shining ochreous with black bands in Vermileo, but less shining and 

 with glistening silvery bands in Lampromyia pallida, or all glistening silvery when 

 seen from in front in Z. sericea. Genitalia of the male large, with long produced 

 upper lamellae in L. pallida but with shorter transvei'se lamellae in L. sericea. 



Legs long and thin, Ijut the hind legs longest and rather thicker than the others 

 and with the tibiae slightly clavate (again suggestive of Leptogaster) ; coxaj long, and in 

 Jjampromyia the front pair with minute pubescence in front, but otherwise the legs 

 are quite bare ; in Vermileo and in L. pallida the fi'ont tibiie have one apical spur, 

 and the posterior tibiae each two, but in L. sericea the anterior tibiae are not spurred 



