ASILUS (SENSU LATO NEC LATISSIMo) 641 



90) considered P. elutus to be a variety of P. al/nccps. I cannot help believing that 

 P. alhiceps must be the species recorded by B. Cooke (Naturalist, v., 134) under the 

 name of A./oycijiatus as common on the Cheshire coast, as he surely cannot have 

 overlooked so common a species, 



ASILUS (sensu lato nee latissimo). 



(Including Antiphrisson, Eccoptopus, Rhadiurgus, Pamponerus, Evhthistus, 

 Antipalios, Loplionottis, Frotophanes, Dysmachus, Eutolmus, Machimus, 

 Heliijvioneura, Stilpnogastcr, Epitriptics, Ncoitamus, Paritamus, Tol- 

 merus, and Cerdistus, but not including Promachus, Alcimus, 

 Philodicus, Prodacanthus, Polysarca, Apocica, Polyphonius, or 

 Philonimis.) 



Asilus Linno, Syst. Nat. Ed. x., T. 1, 605 (1758); v. Hendel, Wien. 

 Ent. Zeit., xviii., Ill (1899). 



Style bare, first joint much shorter than the second. Abdomen 

 narrow. Middle tibise without any terminal hook-like thorn. Cubital 

 vein without any trace of a recurrent veinlet from its upper branch. 

 Ovipositor without any terminal circlet of spines. 



Strongly bristled flies of very large to moderate size (never 

 really small), distinguished from the other Asilinw by the 

 simple cubital fork, and middle tibiae and by the unarmed 

 ovipositor. 



Head with a strong conspicuous face-beard which leaves at least some space 

 (usually about a third of the face) bare on the upper part as well as the sides ; this 

 face-beard may be composed of stiff bristles or soft hairs but is always well defined 

 and droops over the mouth-opening; face sometimes slightly narrower in the 

 male than in the female. Chin and jowls with long dense soft pubescence, while 

 similar pubescence extends some distance up the back of the head, but on the 

 upper part (j to |) is the "festoon," which is composed of a row of stiff bristles near 

 (but not quite close to) the eyes, and these bristles though sometimes comparatively 

 short and stumpy are more commonly long and have the upper ones bent forwards 

 at their tips in a peculiar manner (tig. 362). Frons almost equally wide in both 

 sexes, and deeply sunk between the eyes on at least the upper part or vertex, 

 bare on the channel between the tops of the eyes and on the two forks of that 

 channel which run down the sides of the ocellar space and also on the com- 

 paratively large middle space between the ocellar space and the antenna, but some 

 small bristles begin on the orbits about level with the ocelli, and extend more 

 inwards away from the orbits on the lower part nearer the antennae ; collar 

 ( = prothorax) conspicuous and always pubescent, and with a few strong bristles on its 

 upper part. Proboscis prominently produced, usually shining, and with short 

 pubescence about its tip and long straggly hairs beneath on its basal half. Eyes 

 bare, and with a bulging appearance caused by their protuberance from tjie sunken 

 vertex. Antennae porrect ; tAvo basal joints comparatively short and always bearing 

 bristles ; third joint strap-shaped, and sometimes tapering, as long as the two basal 

 ones together, with a terminal thin style which is usually almost as long as the third 

 joint, and this style has a short basal joint and a thin pointed tip. 



Thorax strongly built, rather contracted in front so that it stands well away 

 from the head. Pubescence (including short bristling) always extending over 

 almost all the disc and usually composed of short bristles, but thin (usually pale) 

 hairs exist inconspicuously along the sides, e.g., on and about the humeri, over the 

 wing-base, on and al)0ut the i)Ostalar calli, and often between these parts and on 

 the hinder part of the thorax ; the usually short bristles generally increase in length 



2S 



