﻿40 Annah of the South African Museum. 



Systoechus ventricostjs, sp. nov., ^ . 



This species is mucli lilve the larger specinaens of mixtus, Wied., but 

 is at once distinguisheel by tlie more narrowly approximated eyes of 

 tlie male, by the entirely yellow legs and abdominal bristles and by 

 the non-infuscated base of the wings. 



Type cJ, a single specimen from Stellenbosch (Cape) (L. Pcrin- 

 guey), 1888. 



Length of the body 13 mm., of the wing 13 mm. Head black, 

 dusted with grey, of the usual shape, viz. much smaller than in 

 scahrlrostris. The occiput is clothed with dense and short fulvous hairs, 

 which become paler below, changing to a quite Avhite beard ; the frons 

 is very naiTow, its breadth at the narrowest point being half as much 

 as the distance between the two basal ocelli ; it is clothed in the 

 middle with erect black hairs like those of the ocellar tubercle, and on 

 the sides with shorter and yellow ones. The frontal triangle is half as 

 broad as in the preceding species, with a less distinct median furrow ; 

 the face is entirely clothed Avith dense hairs, which are black on the 

 middle and on the sides and yellow along the mouth-borders, forming 

 a dense fringe which is produced to the extreme end of the genae. 

 Peristome short and moderately broad ; the bare eyes have the upper 

 areolets a little larger than the lower ones. Antennae entirely black, 

 the first joint with long and rigid black hairs above and below ; third 

 joint longer than the two first joints taken together, almost linear, 

 broadening very little towards the base. Pi'oboscis entirely black, 

 6 5 mm. long, with the labium smooth below ; palpi hidden. Thorax 

 clothed with short, equal and dense fulvous hairs, without any black 

 hairs or bristles, and with strong sericeous sheen if viewed fi'om the 

 front; before the root of the wings others are bright fulvous tufts, 

 which on the pteropleura and on sternopleura are paler but on the 

 breast are still fulvous ; metapleural tuft fulvous. Scutelluni entirely 

 red, with only a very narrow black base, clothed like the thorax and 

 with yellow bristles at the hind border. Squamae yellowish, with 

 dense fulvous fringe ; haltères with whitish knob. Abdomen broad 

 and ovate, black, but narrowly red on the sides, clothed with dense 

 equal fulvous hairs like those of the thorax ; hind border of the 

 segments with fulvous bristles Avhich are concealed among the fur; 

 venter with dense fulvous hairs and with a stripe of white hairs on 

 each side ; genitalia of greater size, their lamellae fulvous, with dai-k 

 base. Legs entirely yellow, the coxae and the extreme base of femora 

 and almost the Avhole of the tarsi blackish ; they are clothed with pale 

 scales and have a few pale hairs on the base of the femora below ; the 



