286 LEPTID^ 



whatever A. jnlosa Meig. may be it is a species which was not described until 

 seventeen years after the genus Atherix was founded, and consequently cannot be 

 its type. Meigen himself thought that his Ath. pilosa was the female of A. melcena, 

 but anyhow Rondani's genus Atherix is an obvious synonym of Symphoromyia as 

 now recognised. Schiner in 1862 sought to distinguish the two genera {Atherix and 

 Symphoromyia), but mistakenly applied the name Ftiolina to the second one, and 

 consequently his Ptiolina is again an absolute synonym of Symphoromyia. It was 

 not untU 1867 that the two genera became well recognised by Frauenf eld's elucidation 

 of the confusion and his establishment of the genus Symphoromyia. I certainly 

 cannot follow Griffini in using the word Ihisia for A. Ibis, etc., and Atherix for 

 Symjihoromyia. 



Tahle of Species. 



1 (2) Legs mainly dull orange. 1 His. 



2 (1) Legs wholly black, 2 marginata. 



1. A. Ibis Fabricius. Wings with conspicuous dark markings. Legs 

 mainly dull orange. 



A very distinct species, though the wings bear a superficial 

 resemblance to Chrysops or Anthrax. 



$ . Face and f rons (fig. 1 89), as well as the narrow space on the latter between the 

 eyes blackish or brownish grey ; frons with rather dense fairly long black 

 pubescence which is not extended upwards between the eyes and is not con- 

 nected with the pubescence on the side-cheeks, the space 

 _ j^ all about and between the antennae being quite bare. 

 *jf!i^W^ Epistoma small and quite bare, but the large side- 



ii^^'fi--'^ cheeks bearing a dense pubescence which is composed 



ji&ki^,^^;^^ of more or less numerous yellowish hairs on the upper 



'^^'^^^^^'^^ part, black hairs on all the middle part, and yellowish 



hairs again on the back part of the very wide jowls ; 

 the pubescence on the very broad under part of the 

 Fig. 1S9.— PHoZt«a oiscura head and on the rather broad lower part of the back 

 (?• X 48. of the head yellowish, but the upper part of the back of 



the head rather shallow though still protruding from the 

 eyes, and bearing a shorter more bristly black pubescence near but not quite 

 close to the eyes, and this pubescence rather dense but formmg no ciliation ; 

 vertex with longer rather dense black pubescence, but the space immediately 

 below the front ocellus quite bare. Proboscis large and protruding, blackish 

 grey with a tinge of orange, and with a large bilobed tip and a channelled under- 

 side covered with short black bristles ; palpi long and thin, but not so long 

 as the proboscis, blackish grey with an orange tinge, strongly upcurved on 

 the basal third but after that projecting forward, and bearing numerous and 

 longer bristly hairs than those on the proboscis. Antennae dull greyish 

 black, short, the three joints nearly equal in length, but the third extended 

 downwards kidney-shaped • basal joint with numerous long black bristly hairs 

 above ; second joint with similar but shorter hairs above and beneath ; arista 

 nearly three times as long as the antennae, apparently bare and not very thin. 

 Eyes in life (according to Girschner) of a beautiful green in the male, but in 

 the female brown with greenish and reddish iridescence. 



Thorax brownish black or nearly black, slightly shining, and with two 

 widely separated brownish yellow lines which are slightly dilated in front and 

 which extend from the front part almost to the scutellum but which slightly 

 diverge at that end ; there are also indications of brownish yellow colour 

 on the humeri and on the sidemargins ; pleurte more greyish. Pubescence 

 on disc of thorax rather short but rather dense, broAvnish yellow with more or 

 less black hairs intermixed ; mesopleura^, prothorax, and the comparatively 

 small roundish metapleurse with longer pubescence, sternopleurse with similar 



