758 REPUTED BRITISH SPECIES 



face under the antennae black almost to the sides and the black colour slightly 

 projecting down towards the mouth at the middle, and each side of the mouth 

 with a tiny black spot; thorax with the sides broadly yellow all round, 

 including the postalar calli and the broad margin of the scutellum ; abdominal 

 side-spots small but connected triangles, and the tip with a narrow pale equal 

 cross-band ; legs black, but yellow on the tip of the femora, on the basal half 

 of the anterior tibiae and basal third of the hind tibiae, and on the basal joint 

 of all the tarsi except its tip ; cubital vein not forked, and the anterior veins 

 dark brown. It is probably a North American species, which seems to be 

 closely allied to 0. occi2jitalis Johnson from Pennsylvania and Virginia. 



11 Strafiomi/s ripar{aM.eig. Duncan (1837) said "Once taken near Duddingston ; 



" likewise found in the vicinity of London, and in other parts of England." 

 Walker (1851) said " Rare. In Mr Saunders's collection. (E.)." I believe that 

 both Duncan and Walker referred to specimens which belong to a common 

 variety of S. furcata, and moreover I am of opinion that Meigen's species 

 is only the same, as nobody in recent times seems to have clearly distin- 

 guished it. 



12 ActiTia nitens Latr. Walker in his List Dipt. Brit. Mus., i., 126 (1848) recorded 



this species from England, giving Stratiomys similis Forst. as a synonym, but 

 in the same List, v., 14 (1854) he gave Actina similis Forster as a good species 

 (possibly intended to include A. nitens, as he omitted that species altogether) 

 and added " It is mentioned as British erroneously in the first ' Catalogue of 

 " Diptera ' ; " this is absurd because Forster's *S'. similis was described from a 

 British specimen, but it has not been clearly made out what species Forster 

 intended, and the absence of A. nitens from Britain makes it almost certain 

 that Forster had some other species before him (possibly £. geniculata). 



LEPTID-^. 



13 Lejitis inutilis Walk. Originally described by Walker in his List Dipt. Brit. 



Mus., i., 213 (1848) as Rhagio inutilis "England. From Mr Walker's 

 " collection." Both sexes were described, but it has reinained unrecognisable 

 ever since. Walker again described it in rather different words in his Ins. 

 Brit. Dipt., i., 67 (1851) as "Rare. In the British Museum," but close search 

 has been unsuccessfully made for the specimens. I am unable to give any 

 suggestion about it as its small size seems to prevent its being a very pale 

 variety of L. tringaria. 



14 L. strigosa Meig. If this be a good species it is distinguished from L. scolopacea 



by being very much paler, but most of the British specimens which I have seen 

 under this name were only small dark specimens of L. scoIojMcea similar to 

 those I have noticed in my description ; a specimen in the old collection of 

 the British Museum is however only L. tringaria. Walker's description (Ins. 

 Brit. Dipt., i., 66) probably referred to small dark specimens of L. scolopacea, 

 but in List Dipt. Brit. Mus., i., 210 he gave Sylvicola clerelictus Harris as a 

 synonym probably because Stephens had done so in 1829 ; S. derelictus Harris 

 must however be a synonym of L. tringaria. Vice recorded L. strigosa 

 (Scottish Naturalist, vii., 11) in 1883 as having occurred at Strathnaver in 

 Sutherland. 



15 L. vitripennis Meig. Walker in his List Dipt. Brit. Mus., i., 211 (1848) gave 



" England " as a locality for this species, but I have never seen a British 



