VERMILEONIN^ 



257 



Fig. 183. — Lampromyia fttnebris Duf. 



(From a specimen in the Paris Museum.) 



Fig. lS4.—l\rmileo DeGeeri S- x 12. 



and only the hind pair bear two fairly long apical spurs. Pulvilli in Vermileo and in 

 Lampromyia sericea three, rather small but equal, and the claws outspread as 

 usual ; but in L. jMllida there are only two minute pulvilli, which are under the 

 long straight approximated claws (as in Leptogaster). 



Wings long and narrow; prsefurca moderate in Vermileo (fig. 184), but rather 

 long in Lampromyia (fig. 

 183)] radial vein springing 

 upwards from the prsefurca, 

 and in Term ?7eo ending after 

 two very slight curves in 

 the costa about half-way 

 between the subcostal vein 

 and the wing-tip, but in 

 Lampromyia it has a strong 

 S-curve (one curve near the 

 base and the other at the 

 tip) and ends rectangularly in the costa (as in many Loniatinae) ; in L. pallida the 

 radial vein starts level with the discal cross-vein (as in Anthracince) ; cubital fork 

 wide open, being in Vermileo as widely open at the wingmargin as the upper 

 branch is distant from the end of the radial vein, and the upper branch ending 



slightly nearer to the wing-tip 

 than the lower branch does ; 

 but in Lamprmnyia pallida ffjhe 

 branches of the cubital fork end 

 equidistant from the wing-tip ; 

 cliscal cross-vein placed at about 

 a third from the base of the 

 discal cell ; discal cell emitting 

 three veinlets towards the wing- 

 margin ; posterior cells five, of 

 which the fourth may be slightly 

 narrowed in Vermileo, or strongly contracted or even closed in Lampromyia sericea^ 

 or closed and even pedunculate in Z. ^w//?Wa (in one wing of the specimen I 

 possess, but in the other wing malformed through the third veinlet from the 

 discal cell splitting and one branch forming a cross-vein to the upper branch 

 of the postical fork almost im- 

 mediately after leaving the dis- 

 cal, while the other branch 

 slopes quickly to the same upper 

 branch and thereby encloses a 

 small cell) ; small cross-vein very 

 short, especially in L. sericea, 

 anal cell open, or almost closed 

 in L. pallida. Apparently the 

 venation of many species in this 

 subfamily is liable to irregular 

 variation, as I have noticed such in Vermileo (fig. 185) and in Lampiromyia pallida, 

 while Loew remarks upon the same peculiarity in the North American genus 

 Triptotricha. Wing-membrane not ribbed or rippled, but with abundant micro- 

 scopical pubescence. Alula absent. Squamae (alar) small, and without any fringe ; 

 thoracal pair absent. Halteres unusually long. 



The Vcrmileonince being very few in number and very little known 

 have caused me to give their characters in considerable detail in this 

 work. They are exceedingly interesting flies, and their larvse are veritable 

 " Ant-Lions " and as such only inhabit hot sandy districts like the shores 

 of the Mediterranean ; it is practically certain that none of them will ever 

 occur in Britain. They differ from the Lejjtincc and Chryso'pilina: in the 

 totally different structure of the face, the dichoptic eyes, the wide open 

 cubital fork, the totally different shape, and (except in Hilarimorpha) the 



R 



Fig. 185.— FcrwiZco DeGeeri i, var. x 10. 



