530 BOMBYLID.E 



has the foremargin of the wings more conspicuously and extensively 

 darkened ; I have pointed out all the distinctions I have been able to detect 

 in the descriptions of those two species, Ijut I may add that the female of 

 A. Paniscus can be distinguished from that of A. circumdatus by the 

 much less blackened marginal and upper basal cells of the wing, and from 

 A. cingulatus by the narrower band of golden scales on the fourth 

 abdominal segment and the practical absence of any band on the fifth or 

 sixth segment, while both those species have less conspicuous black scales 

 on the hind tibiae and have the radial vein less looped. Besides these I 

 believe we possess a larger species very closely allied to A. Paniscus, 

 which may be A. liotUntoUus L. { = A. jlavns Meig.), and which has no 

 silvery scales °at the wing-base, the tufts near the tip of the abdomen 

 yellower, the ground colour at the sides of the abdomen near the base 

 reddish, and the middle tibise rufescent, but I have seen no recent or 

 satisfactory specimens. We may also possess a much smaller British 

 species with clearer wings, of which I have seen two old specimens 

 without any history, and I once saw (but failed to catch) a small specimen 

 on the sandhills at Pallino- in Norfolk. 



o 



The following species have two white tufts of pubescence alternating 

 with three! tufts of black pubescence at the tip of the abdomen. A. 

 halteralis Kowarz ; a species very near A. circumdatus but with blackish 

 hal teres, the abdomen with five pale bands in both sexes, and the wings 

 darker and with a more distinct praealar spine. A. claripennis Kowarz 

 also has the abdomen banded in both sexes, the wings pellucid in front and 

 with a small prsealar spine, while the male has only three bands on the 

 abdomen, the first one being on the foremargin of the fourth segment and 

 the others on the hindmargins of the fifth and sixth segments, and con- 

 sequently is very closely allied to A. cingulatus but has the frons narrower 

 at the vertex. A. hottentottus and A.Jiavus (which are given as synonymical 

 by Bezzi) are the closest allies of A. Paniscus, and I can only distinguish 

 them at present (with the material I possess) by their larger size and 

 by the yellow patch of scales at the base of the wings in both sexes. 



A. Paniscus occurs in abundance in many hot sandy locahties, and I 

 had closely examined more than a hundred specimens before I came 

 against any other British clear-winged Anthrax. It apparently occurs 

 wherever there are coast sandhills, as I have numerous records from the 

 South (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Hants, and Kent), East (Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, Essex), and West (Grlamorgan, Merioneth, Carnarvon, Cheshire), 

 while Colonel Yerbury informs me that he has seen it at Aberlady in 

 Haddington, so that it is one of the few Scotch Bombylidw. I think the 

 only localities I know far away from the coast are the sandy commons 

 near Barton Mills in Suffolk, and perhaps the neighborhood of Darenth 

 in Kent (unless the specimen from Darenth be true A. Jlavus), but it may 

 be noted that many marine species of insects and plants occur near Barton 

 Mills. An interesting note as to the date of its occurrence has been given 

 by Colonel Yerbury, who after several weeks collecting at Porthcawl in 

 1906 saw his first specimen on July 19, but found it in abundance on 

 July 20 ; some other records as to the sexes on some dates are of interest, 

 e.g., on June 29 and July 9, 1901, a number (twenty-seven) of specimens were 

 taken near Barton Mills which were all males with the exception of one 

 immature female which occurred on July 9, and even on August 9 a 



