CYKTICli. 157 



Family CYRTIDJE. 



Head very small, subglobular, almost wholly consisting of the 

 enormous eyes, which tire contiguous in both sexes ; vei'tex very 

 small ; frons generally very small. Proboscis varying from very 

 thin and elongate (as in some Bombyliidye) to very short or 

 obsolete; palpi generally obsolete. Antennae approximate at 

 base, placed in some genera well above, in others well below the 

 middle line of the head, 3-jointed, variable in shape, 1st joint 

 sometimes minute. 



Thorax greatly humped ; prothorax sometimes (Philopotinte, 

 non-Oriental) enormously developed; pubescence moderately 

 thick, sometimes furry ; scutellum large, without bristles ; meta- 

 uotum generally concealed by it. 



Abdomen very broad and gibbous, often quite globular and 

 pellucid, normally 5-segmented ; pubescence variable ; genitalia 

 inconspicuous. 



Legs simple, comparatively short, rarely « ith a short blunt spur 

 on middle tibiie, or with one developed and one less developed spur 

 on posterior tibiae, or a circlet of very short spines on front tibia ; 

 3 pulvilli; empodium as pad-like as outer pulvilli; claws Ion"-. 

 The entire body is wholly devoid of spines or strong bristles. 



Wings diverging and deflexed when at rest, longer in 2 than in 

 d" ; venation very characteristic, but a general interpretation of 

 its varied forms \A0uld be out of place here, as only four genera 

 are Oriental. Ambient vein at times quite absent, even above 

 the wing-tip; auxiliary and 1st veins long, 2nd vein often absent- 

 praefurca beginning about opposite the base of the discal cell • 

 anterior cross-vein near base of discal cell, sometimes very short 

 or absent; 3rd longitudinal A'ein generally forked ; posterior cross- 

 vein present or absent, 4th vein with manifold ramifications ; 5th 

 vein generally forked; anal vein present, sometimes weak and, with 

 the axillary vein, possibly absent. Technically two submarginal 

 cells and from three (sometimes apparently only two, owino- to 

 the dividing vein being obsolete) to five posterior cells. The 

 venation in this family is, perhaps, not thorougldy understood 

 yet.* Thoracic squamae enormously developed and very promi- 

 nent, wrinkled, and generally pubescent, their size beino- one of 

 the chief characters of the famil)^ 



Ltfe-Mstori/. The metamorphoses of several species are knownf 

 the larvae being parasitic in the egg-cocoons or the abdomens of 

 spiders. The larva is amphineustic (though Kcinig describes that 

 of Oncodes as metapneustic), short, thick, 12-segmented, with very 



* See Vei-rall, Brit. Flies, v, p. 447 et seq. 



t Ai^tomolla lindeiiii, Eriobs., Brauer, Verb, zool.-bot. Gres. Wien, xix p. 737 

 pi. xiii, figs. 1-6 (1869), and in Denks. Ak. Wiss. Wien. xlvii, pi. v, Qa's. 89-92 

 (1883). Oncodes pallipcs, Latr., Menge, Scbrift. Danzig. Natiir. Ges.''i, p. 37 

 (1866); Oncodes fmnatus, Eriehs., Brauer, Verb, zool.-bof. Gres. Wien xix 

 p. 737 (1869). Henopi hmnneus, Huttou, Maskell, Traus. Proe N Zeal' 

 Inst, sx, p. 1U6, pi. x(1888). 



