Suptombcr.l 73 



CAEICEA, R. Desv. 

 C. EXSUL, Zett., and Scbin.* 



Both males and females of this fine species woi-e sent to mc last year by Miss 

 R. Prescott Decie, of Bockleton Court, Tenbiiry. She had captured them in Devon- 

 shire. The antenna; and palpi arc black. The arista is sub-plumose. The frontal 

 space is much narrower in the male than the female, being about one-fourth of the 

 width of tlie head in the former and more than a third in the latter sex. The face 

 is rather prominent, and of a silvery-white colour, which extends up the sides of the 

 frontal space, the middle of which is occupied by a bluish-grey stripe. The thorax 

 and abdomen are clear ash-grey ; the former is marked by two narrow longitudinal 

 stripes placed near together, and has the shoulders and sides white. The abdomen 

 is oblong and sub-cylindrical in the male, ovate and pointed in the female ; it is 

 marked on the back by four reddish-brown spols ; th6 apex in the male is but little 

 thickened, and the genitalia small. The legs are black, with the exception of the 

 four posterior tibiae in the male, which are testaceous, as well as the front knees and 

 the points of the other femora. In the female the fore tibise are also brown. The 

 tibiffi are surrounded at their extremities by a group of strong spines as in C. tigrina. 

 The alulets are large and milk-white. The wings have the external transverse veins [74] 

 oblique, and, as well as the internal ones, slightly clouded. The third and fourth Sept., 1887. 

 longitudinal veins are parallel and curved backwards. 



This fly seems very rare. 



C. nuMiLis, Meig., Bond. 



This pretty little species, which is about 3 mm. in length, has the male abdomen 

 cylindrical, clubbed at the apex, and marked by six brown spots, as well as by a 

 central row of small oblong marks. The antennfE and palpi are black ; the arista 

 is long and sub-plumose (Meigen says that it is bare, but the hairs are pale, very fine, 

 and difficult to see) ; the legs are black, with the exception of the tibiee and meta- 

 tarsi, which are testaceous. The female closely resembles the male, except by the 

 shape of the abdomen. 



I found several specimens of this small fly at Buckingham in August, 1884. 



C. SEXMACULATA, Mcig. 

 This is also a well-marked little species, rather smaller than the last, which it 

 closely resembles, the abdomen being marked in a similar manner ; it difPers from 

 it, however, by having the legs wholly black, with the exception of the bases of the 

 fore tibiffi, which are testaceous. The venation of the wings is also slightly different 

 in the two species. Rondani has pointed out that in C. humilis the distance between 

 the two transverse veins is equal to that of the external one from the point of the 

 fifth longitudinal vein, and we find that in C. sexmaculata the external transverse 

 vein is nearer to the end of the fifth longitudinal than to the internal transverse 



vein. 



I found a single male in my garden near Bradford, on April 24th, 1886. 



* Schiner spells the name of this species exid, but I think that Zotterstedt is conect. 



