314 LEPTID^ 



Zetterstedt in 1855 almost copied Wahlberg's descriptions and thereby brought his 

 P. ohsciira into line with our species. In the meantime it would be interesting to 

 know what species Walker included in a genus T>iolina, List Dipt. Brit. Mus., i., 220 

 (1848) with a species T. fristis, which in 1849 in the Errata (p. 1153) he altered to 

 Ptiolimi and at the same time sank his T. tristis under Ft. obscura Zett., and also 

 recorded Ft. nigra Zett. as a British species; the old collection at the British Museum 

 has a specimen labelled P. nigra, which is a female in very bad condition but 

 probably belonging to tire species I am now describing as P. ohscura. If Pt. Wochizkii 

 (not Wodzickii) of Frauenfeld (1867) is a good species it may be distinct from Pt. 

 ohscura in having no trace of darkened lines down the thorax of the female, but 

 Strobl in 1 892 considered Pt. Wodzickii as a synonym of the species which he con- 

 sidered to be Pt. grisea Meig. Strobl's article (Wien. ent. Zeit., xi., p. 121) is 

 however hopeless in all he says about Sjxniia nigra Meig., as he had not seen the 

 true t^jmnia nigra at all at that time, but had a Ptiolina before him, as he recognised 

 later on in Mitth. Naturw. Ver. Steiermark, 1897, p_. 196. 



Strobl also distinguished a second Ptiolina which he considered to be the true 

 Pt. ohscura Fall. Becker in 1900 (Ent. ISTachr., xxvi., 108) dealt with Strobl's second 

 species and also with six other European species, amongst them being Pt. ohsciira Fall., 

 but I cannot understand his statement that Pt. ohscura has the side-cheeks bare in 

 the face of Wahlberg's " epistomate et basi antennarum pilis raris brevibus munitis," 

 and I observe that Lundbeck has noticed this error ; Becker inexactly quoted 

 from Zetterstedt, who in turn simply copied Wahlberg, and it is too much to 

 imagine that Wahlberg included the jowls in his "epistoma," and what is more 

 the " Backen " never have " pili rari " in the genus Ptiolina. I am afraid that 

 Schiner, Strobl, and Becker have each in turn only added to the confusion of 

 nomenclature in this genus Avhile attempting to elucidate it. It is natural that the 

 comparatively common British species should be the first one recognised in 

 the genus, and it is not improbable that our second species is the second one 

 recognised. My continental material is very slight, but a pair of specimens labelled 

 Pt. ohscura in Kowarz's collection are probably the same as my species even though the 

 abdomen of the male has distinctly longer and more conspicuous pubescence, while 

 there are longer ciliations on the hind tibiae and femora and to a certain extent on 

 the anterior femora, and the wings are somewhat dark ochreous about the base ; the 

 female has the thorax without stripes and the legs paler brown, but seems to be 

 otherA\dse indistinguishable. A female in Bigot's collection under the name of 

 Eurytion paradoxus is distinct and is probably the species accepted by Strobl as 

 P. grisea Meig. (and now placed under P. paradoxa Jaenn.) ; it is larger, with the 

 side-cheeks quite bare, the beard light grey, the palpi with short hairs, the basal 

 joints of the antennae almost bare and the third joint elongate oval with a rather stout 

 style, the legs lighter brown, the hind femora with a long fringe beneath (much 

 longer than in P. atra) and a moderate dorsal fringe, the hind tibitB with a dorsal 

 fringe (longer than in P. atra), and the wings yellowish at the base. In Dale's 

 collection there were four specimens under the name of Ptiolina imicolor which 

 were (1) Pt. ohscura Si (2) Pt. atra S, (3) Symjyhoromyia immaculata $ with 

 the anal cell just closed, and (4) Ptiolina ohsciira ? . It is also probable that the 

 Atherix mekvna of Walker in En torn. Mag., iii., 180 (1836) referred to Ptiolina 

 ohsciira, because he suggested that it belonged to the genus Sjxvnia and that its 

 venation varied very much. Curtis's description limits Atherix tinicolor to the genus 

 Symphoromyia. I long ago recorded P. ohscura as British under the name of 

 Pt. Wodzickii. 



2. P. atra Stfeger in litt. Side-cheeks bare. Antennse with numerous 

 bristly hairs on the basal joints, which are long in the male (fig. 201). 



Very mucli like the preceding species. 



$ . Epistoma small, greyish black, quite bare of hairs but clothed \yith very short 

 fine down ; the broad side-cheeks occupy more than two-thirds the space 

 between the eyes and are also quite bare, and they are greyish black 

 against the epistoma but are more decidedly black against the eyes ; jowls 

 broad, deep black, and bearing abundant long greyish black pubescence which 



