462 



CYRTID^ 



Fig. ■2iJS.—Oncodes gibbosus 9- x 11. 



below the touching part of the eyes ; back of the head rather inflated in the male, 

 but more so in the female, and crammed on to the thorax ; jowls slightly inflated. 

 Proboscis absent, the place where it should be being closed with a membrane. Eyes 

 enormous, quite bare. Antennae (fig. 265) apparently two-jointed, dovetailed into 

 the face: apparent basal joint cylindrical, short and thick; apparent second joint 

 oval, witn a long apical thin style, which is dilated at its base but ends in a minute 

 hair-like bristle. 



Thorax (fig. 268) forming a complete sphere ; humeral, prsealar, and postalar calli 



large, but not very conspicuous : pubescence 

 rather dense and soft but hardly abundant 

 enough to be furry, and without the slightest 

 sign of bristles or long hairs even on the 

 postalar calli or the margin of the scutellum. 

 Scutellum large, mth a very deep rounded 

 margin which leaves only a small portion of 

 the disc rather flat, pubescence similar to that 

 on the thorax ; metanotum rather small. 



Abdomen dorsally arched but hardly globu- 

 lar, short ovate with a blunt base and tip in 

 the male, but short and round in the female, 

 with five obvious segments ; pubescence fairly abundant. Genitalia concealed 

 beneath the rather small fifth segment. 



Legs rather short and stout, but simjile and without any trace of spurs or 

 processes ; tarsi with the first and fifth joints longer than the others, Pulvilli and 

 claws well separated from the fifth tarsal joint ; claws long and thin ; pulvilli in the 

 male almost equally long and thin, but shorter and more pad-like in the female. 



Wings short in the male, but larger and longer in the female ; venation very 

 imperfect ; in 0. j^Mil^es the two large basal cells and the closed anal cell can be 

 traced but the small cross-vein is absent ; the wing-tip is clear of all venation for a 

 very large space ; radial vein absolutely absent ; cubital vein sloping downwards 

 incomplete, and not forked • discal vein indicated by three incomplete veins running 

 towards the wingmargin long after the Aving-tip, Squamae (thoracal) enormous, 

 depressed, and clothed all over their upper surface with not at all dense woolly 

 pubescence ; alar pair rather small but thick, clothed with only minute down. 

 Halteres on comparatively short stems, hidden beneath the thoracal squamae. 



This genus is easily distinguished from Acrocera by the position of the 

 antennae and by the venation. The species occasionally occur in large 

 numbers, sitting on the underside of leaves in the neighborhood of damp 

 meadows or on dry tips of boughs ; 0. varius has occurred near Berlin about 

 the middle of June on Eqtiisctum limosiwi, and Gerstaecker has given 

 (Stettin, ent. Zeit., xvi, 339, 1856) some elaborate and interesting 

 details about finding 0. zonatus in abundance. The larvae are parasitic 

 upon spiders, and full details of their early life-history and saltatory 

 powers have been given by Konig (Verb, zool.-bot. Ges, Wien, xliv., 

 163-166, Taf. vii. 1894). 



Oncodes is represented in the Palaearctic region by about six species, 

 though thirteen names are included in Kertesz's " Katalog " of which 

 several are most probably only varieties. The better known species may 

 be tabulated as follows : 



1 (2) Wings more or less darkened. 



Wings brownish on the basal half or even on the whole wing. 



varius Latr. ? 

 (benacensis Pok, (?) yuttatus A. Costa, fumatus Erichs., a^picalis 

 Meig.) 



2 (1) "Wings not at all darkened. 



3 (4) Squamae with pale margins, 1 gibbosiis L, 



