2. BOMBYLIUS 



491 



2. BOMBYLIUS. 



Fig. 290.— Buvibijlimi major S- x 4. 



Bomhylius Liiiiu', Sysfc. Nat., Ed. x., T., i., 606 (1758). 



Moderately large, middle-sized, or rather small flies, which 

 are clothed with dense fm-ry pubescence, and in all British 

 species with that pubescence mainly tawny. Many species 

 have conspicuously marked wings. 



Head semicircular, small in comparison with the thorax, and placed at a lower 

 level because of the high arch of the thorax. Face short, densely hairy, and with a 

 large mouth-opening from which projects a horizontally porrect long thin horny 

 proboscis (fig. 290) which has small narrow sucker-flaps ; palpi short and thin. 

 Frons bearing either long pubescence or scales. Ocelli three. Eyes elliptical, bare, 

 touching in the male, but separated by the broad frons in the female, not indented 

 at the middle of the hindmargin. Antennae (fig. 285) porrect, approximated at the base ; 

 basal joint much longer than the second and bearing long straight hairs ; second 

 joint short and cup-shaped ; third joint elongate, long strap-shaped in the British 

 species, but conical, peg-shaped, or even dilated leaf-like in others, and sometimes 

 bearing dorsal scales ; style terminal and jointed. 



Thorax oval, short but strongly arched, usually with only dense furry pubescence 

 but sometimes with fairly distinct pra^sutural bristles. iScutellum broad, unarmed, 

 and also bearing dense furry pubescence in all British species, but sometimes bearing 

 only scales. 



Abdomen round, short but arched, with seven segments but the last segments 

 indrawn, covered with dense furry pubescence in which sometimes long hairs of a 

 different texture occur. 



Legs long, thin, and bearing spicules ; hind legs elongate, and the hind femora 

 often with stiff bristlv spicules on the underside ; tibiae all with rows of minute 

 spicules and with small terminal spurs. Pulvilli distinct, but the empodium minute. 



