652 ASILID^ 



the tip, and the other joints reddish at the base ; sometimes the dull reddish 

 coloring of the legs tends towards brown on the front side of the posterior 

 tibiae. Pubescence almost all whitish but the ubiquitous minute adpressed 

 pubescence nearly all blackish Avith pale grey hairs intermixed so that the 

 ground colour is not affected unless by the reddish felt which occurs on the 

 inner side of the hind tibije and the apical half of the front tibiaB ; front 

 femora with some long pubescence beneath which is black on the apical part 

 but whitish and thinner haired on the basal half, and the middle femora with 

 slight pubescence near the base, while the front tibite bear a delicate one- 

 rowed ciliation beneath. Bristles all black ; front femora with only about 

 three postero-dorsal after the middle ; front tibiae with the usual long postero- 

 ventral, the short dorsal, and two short antero-dorsal near the base ; middle 

 femora with one rather strong antero-dorsal at two-thirds of the length and 

 one at one-third besides sometimes a third one near the latter, two postero- 

 dorsal close to the tip, about six irregular antero-ventral, and four weak 

 postero-ventral near the middle ; middle tibiae with two strong antero-dorsal, 

 two or three small postero-dorsal (the two lower ones being nearly level with 

 the two antero-dorsal), four postero-ventral and two or three antero-ventral 

 on the apical half ; hind trochanters with one or two spines ; hind femora 

 with about six antero-dorsal (almost anterior), about seven antero-ventral 

 (mostly small), and about three postero-ventral (one after the middle and 

 fairly strong) ; hind tibiae with about three (2-4) antero-dorsal (if three, one 

 near base, one near middle, and one at three-quarters ; if four, the other one 

 is at about one-third the length), two (or one) postero-dorsal (if one only near 

 the middle), and three antero-ventral after the middle ; the strong bristles are 

 all black in every specimen I have examined, but Loew states that there are 

 rare exceptions. Pulvilli brownish orange ; claws black, but brown at the 

 base. 



Wings with a greyish brown gloom (except perhaps at the base and nearly 

 up to the middle of the foremargin) which includes all the veins and wing- 

 margin, but the wings are rather orange about the base of the anal vein ; 

 wing-membrane very conspicuously ribbed especially in the marginal cell. 

 Squamae (alar) dull glassy, with the margin brownish orange but pale yellow 

 underneath, and with fairly abundant whitish yellow fringes ; thoracal pair 

 only represented by a bare brownish frenum. Halteres yellowish brown or 

 brown. 



? . Very much like the male. Face-beard frequently all black, and always with 

 the pale hairs much reduced in number. 



Thorax as in the male. Scutellum with the short pubescence sometimes 

 all black. 



Abdomen with the grey hindmargins narrower, whiter, and more sharply 

 defined ; pubescence on the sides all black except for a few pale hairs on the 

 basal segment and still fewer on the second segment and possibly a very few 

 on the third, but the hindmarginal fringe on the basal segment tending to 

 form about four bristles near each side which range from all whitish to all 

 black, and the extreme sides of the other hindmargins have indications of 

 two or three small bristles of which those on the second and third segments 

 may be whitish. Belly with the pubescence on the last few segments all 

 black, and wth some long black bristly hairs beneath the eighth segment 

 ( = basal part of the ovipositor). Ovipositor shining black, Avith the flattened 

 eighth abdominal segment appearing to form its basal part, short, conical, 

 and depressed, but not in the least compressed, bearing black hairs, and 

 ending in a pair of unusually long free lamellae. 



Legs with only one middle postero-dorsal bristle on the hind tibiae. 



Wings, etc., as in the male. 



Length about 12 mm. 



This species has no close ally in Europe, and may be distinguished 

 from all the other Asilinm by the shining black bare parts of the face and 

 frons. Zetterstedt probably gave the species its name from (what he then 

 thought) the variabihty of the colour of the face-beard, but he seems to 



