306 LEPTID^ 



E. atratus Fabr. is the same as the common Italian C. sictda Loew, even though 

 Fabricius persistently said "pedibus nigris," but recently Bezzi has stated that 

 C. au7-atus also occurs in Italy. The older name is C. atratus (1781), and it is note- 

 worthy that Meigen in 1804 adopted that name for the common European species, 

 and that Fabricius in 1805 appears to have accepted Meigen's identification but 

 forthwith described an Atherix aurata as a new species from Denmark. It is also 

 certain that when Loew wrote of Fabricius's Atherix aurata "Es ist unzweifelhaft, 

 " und es hat in der That bis jetzt noch Niemand daran gezweifelt, dass dies die 

 " Beschreibung des Weibchens des Chrysop. aurata ist," he and others had no notion 

 that FalDricius's words " thorace cinereo nigro trilineato, . . . alls aibis : . . . Caput 

 " cinereum . . . Thorax cinereus : lineis tribus dorsalibus, approximatis atris ; inter- 

 " media tenuiore '' could possibly apply better to the common British species than to 

 the common European one. There is however a still older name, Musca cristata, 

 (Fabr. Syst. Ent., 782, 1775) which was given to a species caught in England on 

 May 20, and which was discussed by Loew but unwillingly rejected because 

 Fabricius himself subsequently (Ent. Syst., iv., 276, 1794) suppressed it under his 

 Rhagio atratus ; I quite agree with Loew in refusing to identify an English species 

 " Pedes nigri, tibiis pallidis " with an Italian species " pedibus nigris," and further- 

 more Fabricius merely suppressed the Musca cristata of his Mantissa, ii., 349 (1787) 

 which was not referred to as identical with his 3fusca cristata of 1775. Fabricius 

 may well have given the name " cristata " to our species in reference to the crest of 

 golden pile on the hindmargin of the basal abdominal segment, as that is a 

 prominent characteristic of the British species even though it may be shared with 

 others. 



I would not have resuscitated Fabricius's name if it suppressed any known name 

 for this species, but whether the species be known in future as C. cristattis Fabr. or 

 C. cristatus Verr. is to me a matter of complete indifference. 



Walker endeavoured to recognise a common Chrysopihis in Styrex holosei'iceus 

 Scopoli (1 763) ; if he had succeeded he might as well have revived the generic name 

 Styrex. I cannot possibly recognise any species from Scopoli's description. 



2. C. aureus Meigen. Legs all yellow. Wings hyaline without any 

 dark clouds except the stigma. 



A small very graceful species. 



c^ . Dull brownish black, obscured about the humeri and pleurae by light grey 

 dust, and in good specimens almost covered with golden pile. Epistoma and 

 side-cheeks covered with light grey or yellowish grey dust ; socketed epistoma 

 bare, nearly circular and globular ; side-cheeks apparently bare, but with a faint 

 ciliation on the lower third of the side of the channel between them and the 

 epistoma, and this ciliation continued on to the jowls ; at the lowest hind 

 corner of the jowls (almost behind the mouth-ojiening) there is considerable 

 long whitish pubescence, which gradually sliortens as it ascends the 

 moderately inflated light ashy grey lower part of the back of the head, but 

 the actual margins against the eyes are bare ; all the upper part of the back 

 of the head is almost flush with the eyes and is almost bare, as there is only 

 a slight pale fringe near but not quite close to the eyes ; ocellar space 

 consideral)ly elevated, greyish, and bearing a few short yellow hairs ; frons 

 ashy grey, running up to a long point between the eyes and mth a deep 

 middle channel, but leaving the eyes touching for about one-third the distance 

 between the occiput and the antennae. Proboscis thick and yellow, with the 

 sucker-flaps large ; palpi elongate and thin, blackish brown, and bearing 

 numerous obscurely whitish long outstanding hairs. Eyes in life brilliant 

 golden green, or rather coppery green on the upper three-fifths and green 

 on the lower two-fifths ; facets distinctly large in front about the part 

 where the eyes touch, but also rather larger on more than the upper half 

 than on the lower part, but the change is little perceptible. Antennie 

 brownish black ; basal joint very small ; second joint transverse and the 

 largest ; third joint small and transverse ovate ; arista about four times as 

 long as the antenna?, very slightly pubescent. 



Thorax and scutellura dull brownish or greyish black wdthout any distinct 



