13. DIOCTRIA 735 



bare, ocellar knob considerably elevated and bearing only very short black 

 bristles, antennal prominence rather large and bearing stifi' black pubescence ; 

 collar shining black and bearing only inconspicuous black bristly pubescence, 

 but with some conspicuous longer stiff black hairs on the side projections. 

 Proboscis horizontally porrect, long, black, and bearing the usual tuft of short 

 pale pubescence above near the tip and some thin straggly pale hairs beneath 

 near the base ; palpi black, nearly half the length of the proboscis, and 

 bearing long porrect black bristles, but the basal joint with a tew long black 

 pendent hairs. Antennae upraised, about as long as the height of the head : 

 basal joint elongate cylindrical, about twice as long as the second, and 

 bearing numerous black bristly hairs ; second joint with fewer and shorter 

 bristles; third joint slightly shorter than the two basal joints together and 

 diverging Avidely from them, dull brownish black, and bearing some short 

 inconspicuous (or one or two moderately long) black dorsal bristles just before 

 the middle ; style about a third or a quarter the length of the third joint and 

 almost as stout. 



Thorax shining black with (in very good specimens) traces of two widely 

 separated greyish brown dusted stripes ; pubescence very short, black and 

 inconspicuous on the disc, but rather longer and more obvious about the 

 sides ; bristles consisting of one strong (usually) blackish orange prgesutural 

 and several (2-6) strong (though not all equally strong) supra-alar, but no 

 noticeable postalar. Pleuras with the shimmering stripes distinct and usually 

 light grey but sometimes almost golden ; mesopleurse with some longish hairs 

 on the grey stripe down the back part, and slightly pubescent on the upper 

 part; pteropleurse slightly pubescent on the back part; metapleurse with 

 longer rather sparse but obvious pubescence and with a fan of about six (4-8) 

 long yellowish bristly hairs. Scutellum with a slight black marginal fringe. 



Abdomen unicolorous shining black, but with the tip of the genitalia 

 brownish red ; seventh segment hardly widened, and the eighth about half 

 the length of the seventh. Pubescence minute but rather dense, black with 

 some short rusty hairs about the basal corners and with a ciliation of about six 

 longer yellowish bristly hairs along the sides of the hindmargin of the basal 

 segment. Genitalia with a shining black bent down dorsal plate which 

 bears moderately long yellowish pubescence and has each end corner 

 produced into a short prong, while between these prongs are a pair of short 

 blunt lamellae; lower lamellae elongate, brownish orange at the end, and 

 bearing rather long yellowish pubescence ; inner lamellae orange. 



Legs orange ; coxae usually blackish, but the anterior pairs obscured by 

 dense grey dust and long pale yellowish pubescence; hind trochanters 

 blackish ; tibiae blackened (or in immature specimens browned) for about the 

 apical sixth of the front pair, fifth of the middle pair, and two-fifths of the 

 hind pair ; tarsi black, with the base of each joint very narrowly reddish orange ; 

 hind tibiae slightly dilated at the tip; basal joint of the hind tarsi hardly 

 dilated ; all the femora with sparse long pale hairs beneath near the base. 

 Bristles all orange, even those at the tips of the tarsal joints; femora with 

 inconspicuous subapical bristles, of which two or three of the hindmost on 

 the anterior legs curve forwards at their tips ; middle femora with several 

 inconspicuous though stout anterior bristles on the basal three-quarters, and 

 two or three short posterior ones after the middle ; hind femora Avith four or 

 five similar anterior bristles on the basal third ; front tibiae with indications 

 of a dorsal row of about five bristles (basal one fairly conspicuous), four or 

 five postero-dorsal, and two strong postero-ventral near the middle with 

 another rather before the tip ; middle tibiae with two to four incon- 

 spicuous dorsal bristles, two to five anterior (of which two are conspicuous), 

 two antero-ventral, four to six posterior, and two postero-ventral near the 

 middle ; hind tibial with about five antero- dorsal bristles, about six small 

 dorsal, and some exceedingly thin longish postero-ventral hairs intermixed in 

 the furry pubescence. Pulvilli and empodium orange ; claws conspicuously 

 orange on the basal half. 



Wings blackened and in certain lights with a violet purplish lustre, rather 

 washed out towards the hindmargin and darkest about the foremargin, but not 

 uncommonly the blackening is most developed about the veins so that the 

 cells have light kernels and the wings a somewhat reticulated appearance : 



