3. ANTHRAX 533 



Legs blacker than in the two allied species even though there are a 

 considerable number of pale scales on the femora, but the tibiaj (especially 

 the hind pair) bearing scarcely any pale scales ; hind femora with only about 

 three postero-ventral bristles which are placed near the middle. 



Wings blacker at the base and with a more blackish hue in the costal cell 

 than in A. circumdatus, and sometimes faintly smoky over the portion which 

 is strongly darkened in A. circumJatus ; costa with hardly any pale scales on 

 the widened black base. Squamae almost blackish orange. 



Length about 10 mm., but varying from 9 mm. to 11 mm. 



This species shows but little variation, but it is worthy of notice that 

 Loew (Zeitschr. ges. Naturw. x., 100, 1857) stated that both the yellow 

 colour of the pubescence and the dark foremargin of the wings lose their 

 colour to a certain extent with age. The male is not difficult to distinguish 

 from its English allies as it has only three distinct abdominal bands, 

 while A. circumdatus has five and A. Paniscns none. The female requires 

 considerably more care in determination, but has the foremargin of the 

 wing much less darkened than in A. cirmmdatus, while A. Paniscus is 

 normally a larger species and has the last two abdominal bands indistinct. 

 The European A. darijKnnis is very closely allied, but has the costal cell 

 quite hyaline and the postocular scales whitish, while the male has the 

 frons at the vertex distinctly narrower and the band on the fourth 

 abdominal segment less wide. 



A. cingulatus is at present very little known as a British species, but 

 is not uncommon at Wormsley near Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire, 

 where it occurs on the steep slopes of the Chiltern Hills, and I believe 

 that a female taken by Colonel Yerbury at Holne in South Devon on 

 July 28, 1896, belongs to this species. The Wormsley locality was 

 found by Mr W. E. Grant on July 7, 1895, when he took three females, 

 and on July 17, 1898, he took three of each sex, but it was not until 

 after we had been taking A. circumdatus in Dorset in August 1906 that 

 Colonel Yerbury called my attention to the distinctness of the Wormsley 

 species from A. circumdatus, though he had long before recognised its 

 distinctness from A. Panicus ; a search for it about July 13, 1907, was 

 ineffective, but as that year was a remarkably late season a f vu'ther search was 

 made on August 13 and produced two males, with which several females 

 occurred on that and the three succeeding days. The specimens all 

 occurred amongst the long grass and flowers of a small glade surrounded 

 by trees, but I have little doubt that the species is widely spread along 

 the Chilterns. 



Synonymy. — It is impossible to ascertain how far the old British authors 

 distinguished the clear-winged species of Anthrax, and it is almost certain that they 

 mistook the two sexes of A. Paniscns for distinct species ; it is however probable 

 that they distinguished A. circumdatus because the localities they gave would suit 

 that species, and consequently I believe that the A. cingidata of Walker (Ins. Brit. 

 Dipt, i., 78) referred to A. circumdatus, but the late Edward Newman gave me a 

 specimen which I believe to be a true A. cingidatns. Villeneuve states that 

 Meigen's collection contains two types, of which the male has been figured by 

 Meigen and is the species now described, but that the female is only A. Paniscus. 



4. A. circumdatus Meigen. Wings hyaline, but with a rather wide 

 smoky blackish brown foremargin which includes at least the upper basal 

 cell. Abdomen with five bands of yellow scales in both sexes. (Fig. 304.) 



