0"J SYKPHID.*;. 



42. Melanostoma pedium, Wal/c 



Syr2)hus pedim, Walker, Ins. Saund., Dipt. pt. 3, p. 234 (1852). 

 Si/rp/itis cothonea, id., op. cit., p. 235 (1852). 



c5' . "Metallic green; face mostly adorned with a pale tawny 

 covering; eyes red: suckers and feelers ferruginous ; chest clothed 

 with tawny hairs ; abdomen black, much longer but not broader 

 than the chest, slightly widening from the base till near the tip, 

 which is brassy, fringed with pale tawny hairs, adorned with three 

 pairs of large, oblong tawny spots ; legs pale tawny; wings tinged 

 with pale tawny ; wing-ribs tawny ; veins black, tawny towards 

 the base and along the fore border ; poisers tawny, 



"Length of the body 3 lines; of the wings 6 lines. East 

 Indies." 



A species requiring confirmation as to its validity. 



Type, $ , in the British Museum. 



Genus PLATYCHIRUS, St. Farg. et Serv. 



Platycheinis, St. Fargeau et Serville, Encycl. Method, x, p. 513 

 (1825). 



Genotype, Syrplius scutatus, Meig. ; by Westwood's designation 

 (1840). 



Differing from Syrplms principally in the blackish face, which 

 is more or less dusted, without any trace of yellow colouring ; 

 eyes bare, contiguous in S ; antennae blackish, but under side of 

 3rd joint sometimes pale; arista bare. Tltorax and scutellum 

 without trace of yellow markings, pubescence never bristly. 

 Abdomen M'ith nearly parallel sides, always with pairs of yellowish 

 (or occasionally bluish) spots. "Ze^/sof the J remarkably charac- 

 teristic, as the base of the front tarsi is always enlarged — whence 

 the name of the genus — and also ev^ery part, coxae, trochanters, 

 femora, tibiae and tarsi bear individual specific characters in all 

 three pairs of legs ; sometimes on the front legs only, sometimes 

 on the anterior legs only, and sometimes on all pairs " ( Verrall). 

 In the 5 the legs are simple, except that the front tarsi may be 

 slightly widened. Wings etc. as in Syrplms. 



Life -hi story . One European species is said to have been bred 

 from rotten fungi ; others have been found in the stems of plants 

 and trufiles, or bred from larvae found in flood refuse and other 

 vegetable debris. 



Range. Europe, Siberia, Orient, North America, Greenland. 



Platycliirus may be recognised from Syrphus by the absence of 

 any yellow markings on the face or scutellum, from Melanostoma 

 by the dilated front tarsi of the <S , and from Chilosia by the 

 yellow abdominal markings and the absence of eye-margins. The 

 species are closely allied, but, if full attention be paid to the 

 specific characters, they may in the majority of cases be detei*- 



