696 



ASILID^ 



Fig. 368. — Laphria flavat 

 6. X 26. 



bristly nature than tliat surrounding it ; the whole of the face from the antennae to 

 the jowls and from eye to eye clothed with long dense pubescence in the hairier 



species of the genus {L.flava, etc.), but in the barer species 

 the flat upper part of the face may be almost bare ; jowls 

 and lower part of the back of the head clothed with dense 

 pubescence, and though in the larger species the pubescence 

 on the upper part may resolve itself into a postocular fringe 

 it hardly forms a festoon, while in the hairier species it 

 merges into the long dense pubescence ; vertex considerably 

 sunk between the eyes so that the latter bulge out consider- 

 ably; frontal orbits bearing abundant long pubescence ; ocellar 

 triangle elevated, with a pair of remarkably long diverging 

 bristly hairs standing out from between the ocelli. Proboscis 

 rather longer than the head, porrected horizontally or rather 

 drooping ; palpi small. Eyes in both sexes flattened on the 

 front part and with the facets there very much enlarged. 

 Antennae (fig. 368) approximated at the base, hardly longer 

 than the head ; basal joint cylindrical, much longer than the 

 rather short second one ; third joint slender and strap- 

 shaped, but slightly widened about the middle and without 

 any terminal style. 



Thorax rather arched, oval, usually covered with dense 

 pubescence, in which case bristles are very indistinct, but 

 when the pubescence is short or almost absent prsesutural, 

 supra-alar, and sometimes postalar bristles become distinct ; metapleural pubescence 

 ranging from a long dense conspicuous tuft to a fan of rather numerous long bristly 

 hairs. Scutellum with some long upturned marginal hairs ; metanotum bare, almost 

 concealed under the scutellum. 



Abdomen sometimes broad and ovate, but more commonly elongate oblong in 

 the smaller barer species, never at all conical ; pubescence sometimes long and dense, 

 but even when short and comparatively sparse forming bands of light colored hairs ; 

 bristles absent; the ground colour of the abdomen is conspicuously reddish in 

 some of the small bare species, and such species seem to mimic (or be mimicked by) 

 some of the similarly colored species of Xylota. Genitalia of the male usually large 

 and somewhat bent down {v. Snodgrass, Psyche, 1902, 399. but I cannot imagine 

 why Snodgrass considered the genitalia inverted, as the claspers or upper lamellte 

 are in their usual dorsal position), but of the female ending in a short pointed 

 ovipositor. 



Legs strong ; femora thickened, and the hind pair longest ; tibiae curved. 

 Pubescence usually long and abundant all over the femora and tibiae and then as a 

 rule all bristles absent or at any rate very inconspicuous, but in the barer species 

 the pubescence is much less abundant and then distinct bristles occur on the 

 tibiae and occasionally even on the posterior femora ; the circlets of bristles at the 

 tip of the tibiae and of the four basal joints of the tarsi are usually inconsiiicuous, 

 and are sometimes replaced at the end of the hind tibiae by a short blunt spur whicli 

 may occur as a male character only. 



Wings often but not always broad and long ; marginal cell closed and petiolate 

 with the subcostal and radial veins meeting at an equal curve ; discal cross-vein 

 before the middle of the discal cell ; first posterior cell wide open, fourth bluntly 

 closed and petiolate, others open ; anal cell closed ; small cross-vein distinctly 

 present. Wing-membrane very much rippled, minutely pubescent. Squamae (alar) 

 small and without (or with only a slight) fringe ; thoracal pair absent. 



The metamorphoses of L. fiava have been observed by Dr D. Sharp at 

 Nethy Bridge ; he found the larvae hving in the burrows of large wood- 

 feeding Coleopterous larvae, where he believes they act as scavengers by 

 promptly devouring any recently deceased larvse. The perfect insects, like 

 all AsUidce, are predaceous upon other insects. 



Synonym'!/. — When Loew founded the genus Dasyllis he was well acquainted 

 with both the American and European species of Laphria, and consequently he 

 could not have intended his new genus to include the densely haired L.flava, etc. 



