84 SYRPHID.E. 



"Walker's S. triUgatns, of whicli the type (a J ) is still in very 

 fair condition, varies only in the abdominal bands beiug ratlier 

 broader and very black. The hind legs are missing. 



S. halteatus is distinctly variable ; in the variety nectarinus the 

 face and frons are whitish, the facial stripe blnish-black. The $ , 

 even of the common Indian form, is sometimes tinged with bluish. 

 The various exceedingly closely allied species from China, Borneo 

 and Java (referred to by Verrall, but of which he only specifically 

 mentions nectarinus, Wied.) are probably synonymous; T have 

 genei-ally adopted the principle that anything that looJcs like 

 halteatus, is halteatus. It is not unusual for specimens to have a 

 D-reyish-Eeneous space in front of the scutellum concolorous with 

 and united to the grey dorsal stripes ; viewed from behind this 

 space is sometimes as large as the scutellum. Specimens with the 

 narrow transverse abdominal bands distinctly reaching the side 

 margins are common (sometimes one band does so and the other- 

 is shortened); and in one such $ from Peshawur (19. iii. 1913, 

 Boivlett) they are two-thirds as wide as the broad bands, tlie 

 5th segment having a large triangular spot attaining the front 

 margin and the two hind corners, whilst the side margins of the 

 abdomen are almost continuously black. A headless specimen 

 from Pusa, 29. viii. 1912, has the three broad transverse abdominal 

 bands distinct, but only a mere trace of the foreshortened narrow 

 ones, the median stripe on the 2nd segment and the spot on the 

 5th both being absent. 



This species is extremely common throughout the whole of the 

 East in both hills and plains during tlie greater ]-»art of the warm 

 weather. Its range includes all Europe, Madeira, Canaries,, 

 N. Africa, and Asia to Japan. 



67. Syrphus cinctellus, Zett. (PI. I, fig. 21.) 



Sceeva cinctella, Zetterstedt, Dipt. Scand. ii, p. 742 (1843). 

 Syrphus cinctellus, VerraU, Brit. Flies, Syrph. p. 392 (1901). 



(S 2 . Head in 6 with eyes closely contiguous for a consider- 

 able distance; vertical triangle rather elongate, dark yellowish- 

 grey with ruby-red ocelli and long black pubescence ; frons and 

 face shining chrome-yellow, former with a large semicircular black 

 spot above anteunse "and black pubescence ; latter with fine pale 

 yellow pubescence: facial bump shining, bare, brownish-yellow; 

 mouth-border rather orange; proboscis black. Antennae black,, 

 1st and 2nd joints on lower side and 3rd on basal half below, 

 brownish-orange. Occiput yellowish-grey, marginal fringe bright 

 yellow, some black hairs intermixed behind vertex. In $ , vertical' 

 space shining brassy-aeneous, sometimes with a broad blackish 

 stripe thence to the black spot above antenna? (in one specinien 

 this stripe is reduced to the narrowest suspicion of a median 

 line). Thorax brilliantly shining aeneous, often with a brassy 

 tinge ; anterior corners towards sides, mesopleurae, upper part of 

 sternopleurse and adjacent regions yellow-dusted; rest of 



