^80 LEPTID.^ 



sparse short black bristly hairs amongst which are a few short yellow ones ; 

 nietapleural tuft with several black hairs on the upper part. Scutellum light 

 ashy grey and bearing numerous pale hairs and a few black ones. 



Abdomen with the blackish coloring so predominant that only the hind- 

 margins are orange, but the orange colour spreads up on the second, third, and 

 fourth segments (and slightly on the fifth) between the middle and the sides 

 so as to cause the " doubly bowed " band and to leave the orange hindmargin 

 narrow at its narrowest parts. Pubescence conspicuously yellow and depressed 

 all over except about the basal corners where it is longer and less depressed, 

 rather outspread at the sides of the two basal segments, and there 

 are some very short inconspicuous black bristles on the disc of the first and 

 second segments and a very few on the third segment. Belly greyish black 

 with narrow yellow hindmargins on the three basal segments and with the 

 orange dorsal hind corners of the fifth and sixth segments showing up con- 

 spicuously ; pubescence very short, depressed, pale and sparse on the four 

 basal segments. 



Legs with the coxae dark ashy grey and more decidedly colored than in 

 the darkest forms of L. tringaria and with only greyish white pubescence in 

 which there are no black hairs even at the tip in front ; hind tibiae only 

 faintly darkened at the tip ; the small black bristles on the tibiae rather 

 consiDicuous ; " touch-hairs " beneath the front tarsi rather numerous. 



Wings only slightly yellowish, but the stigmatic space more deeply 

 yellowish and the mediastinal cell yellowish, and the base rather orange. 

 Squamae yellowish white with only slightly yellower margins and with 

 whitish not dense fringes. 



Length about 10 mm. 



This species may be distinguished from any of the L. frinfjaria group 

 by its pale pubescence alone, but it also differs in its much less orange 

 coloring whereby the thorax shows rather sharply defined pale ashy grey 

 stripes, and the coxte are decidedly dark ashy grey ; the palpi are also 

 more decidedly blackish, and the antennse show very little trace of orange. 



Z. annidata is only known as British from one female specimen taken 

 by Dr J. H. Wood at The Dowards in Herefordshire on June 3, 1903. As 

 however it is said to be a fairly common North European species (and 

 even on mountains down to Austria), it is possible that it will not prove 

 to be very rare now that attention has been drawn to it. It w^as reputed 

 as British in Stephens' Catalogue of British Insects and in Curtis's Guide, 

 hut probably in mistake for some form of L. trimjaria, though three 

 specimens {1$ 2 ? ) in the old collection of the British Museum under 

 this name or that of " annula " are dark and strange looking. 



Sj/nonymi/. — I cannot help doubting whether Schiner and other European 

 writers pro^Derly recognised this species, as they do not refer to the pale pubescence 

 which is its most striking character. In Bigot"s collection seven specimens stood for 

 it, of which four were L. lineola, one L. monticola, and two an allied Leptis of which 

 one bore a label " Caucas." 



6. L. lineola Fabricius. Rather small species, with only pale 

 pubescence on the thorax. Abdomen with conspicuous orange markings. 

 Legs orange, but with a broad blackish ring near the tip of the front and 

 hind femora. Wings immaculate except for the conspicuous blackish 

 stigma. 



Very distinct from any other British species except L. 

 monticola. 



$ . Head when viewed sideways appearing to be short but not really much so if 

 the puffed-out lower part of the back of the head be included. The bare 



