10. LAPHRIA 697 



Table of Species. 



1 (2) Very large handsome species, clothed with long dense pubescence. 



1 Jlava. 



2 (1) Moderate-sized dull species, clothed with short inconspicuous 



pubescence. 2 marfjinata. 



1. L. flava Linn(5. Black; densely clothed with mainly yellowish 

 hairs amongst which black hairs are intermixed on the head, front part of 

 the thorax, and femora, but not on the scutellum or abdomen. Hind tibiae 

 of the male with a short stout spur. 



One of our largest and most distinct flies. 



c^ . Face and frons obscurely shining black though bearing very little dust, and 

 the eyes almost equally separated from the vertex to the mouth ; face-knob 

 comparatively small, rounded, and bearing a few rather porrect stiff hairs, 

 while the surrounding pubescence on the face is yellowish, more drooping, 

 and more abundant ; the yellow hairs near the antennae are also shorter and 

 are more porrect at their base but droop towards the tip, and several incon- 

 spicuous black hairs occur quite close to the antennae ; all the hairs on the 

 upper part of the face are of comi^letely different texture from those in L. 

 marginata and its allies ; chin- and jowl-beards outstanding and sometimes 

 all whitish grey, or at other times the rather small jowls may bear blackish 

 pubescence close against the eyes ; back of the head considerably puffed out 

 from the eyes, and bearing on its lower part dense outstanding obscurely 

 greyish yellow or greyish white pubescence (black close against the eye- 

 margin) ; upper half of the back of the head clothed with dense black 

 pubescence which becomes shorter as it approaches the vertex (unless rusty 

 about the upper eye-angles), and this pubescence forms a dense postocular 

 frill, but hardly a festoon because there is no sign of bristles ; close against 

 the hindmargin of the eyes is a slight shimmering greyish band ; frons 

 bearing thin rusty hairs on the upper part, but abundant longer stiffer black 

 hairs on the lower part near the eyes ; ocellar knob very little elevated, and 

 bearing a few very long hairs of which the two middlemost are extra long 

 and thin and almost invariably orange — I have once seen one hair black ; 

 collar clothed with blackish rather rigid pubescence. Proboscis long and 

 rather thin, black, rather drooping, and bearing short obscure pubescence 

 about its tip and unusually long and abundant yellowish white pubescence 

 beneath on its basal half ; palpi very short and small, but bearing long porrect 

 black hairs. Eyes conspicuously flattened in front, and the facets on thatflat 

 part remarkably enlarged. Antennae (fig. 368) black ; basal joint cylindrical, 

 three times as long as broad, and bearing abundant mostly dark orange hairs 

 which are longest on the underside ; second joint short, hardly cup-shaped, 

 only a little longer than broad, and bearing short mostly black bristly hairs ; 

 third joint dull and bare, nearly half as long again as the two basal joints 

 together, strap-shaped but rather narrowed towards the base. 



Thorax shining black, clothed with dense suberect pubescence which at 

 first glance appears to be blackish on about the front third because numerous 

 black hairs occur on that part, but mixed with them are still more numerous 

 but less conspicuous slightly shorter thin brownish orange hairs, though when 

 seen sideways the pale hairs may appear to predominate ; the black hairs 

 disappear about the middle part and the brownish yellow hairs become more 

 dense, while on the hind half the hairs are distinctly longer and all pale 

 yellow and are so dense that they obscure the ground colour, and at the hind- 

 margin they rather overhang the scutellum ■ all the hairs are black about the 

 humeri and from there back to the wing-base. Bristles practically absent, 

 but there may be indications of them in the strength of some hairs which 

 occur in the usual places for prsesutural and supra-alar bristles. Pleurae 

 mainly clothed with dense black pubescence, but some of the long hairs at 



