A Monograph of Egyptian Dipiera. 



on the thorax and not so erect and conséquent]}' the ground colour 

 appears blaeker and more shming. 



Legs usually black, with the knees and the basai third of the 

 front and the basai half of the middle tibias yellovv; the base of 

 the middle tarsi is also yellow. Pubescence on the anterior legs 

 fairly abundant, very equal and of a faded yellow colour; on the 

 hind legs the femora bear an abundant tawny pubescence, and 

 beneath, a row of coarse black hairs, while the tibiee bear dark 

 tawny pubescence, with a tuft of coarser black hairs, just after 

 the middle on the under surface; the tibise are rather compressed 

 about the middle, and somewhat twisted. 



Wings pale brownish on the front half, with a small dark 

 brown spot under the end of the subcostal vein, in which spot there 

 is an indistinct cross-vein. ïlie veinlet after the closed cell RI 

 is prolonged towards the tip of the wing; Anal 2 much undulated. 

 Scjuamula^ dull pale yellowish, the thoracal pair are large and 

 hâve dense coarse yellowish fringes; tlie alar ones are also rather 

 large and bave a moderately long, simpler, though denser and 

 coarser fringes. Haltères pale yellow, hearl of club, brown. 



Female: — Very similar to the maie, but the eycs are usnally 

 more bare, the broad vertex shining black with black hairs, and 

 separated from the black triangle above the antennœ by the union 

 of the dust on the sides of the frons, though in the région of the 

 union the dust gets thinner and in the hollow below the antennas 

 the dust covcrs both sides of the face; the frons, as a rule, bas 

 yellow hairs, but sonietimes black, or yellow and black hairs inter- 

 mixed. 



Length from IG to 18 nuii. 



The abdomen varies very consideiably in ils pale markings and 

 some si^ecimens I possess are entirely black, except for the very 

 thin orange-yellow hind margins of the second and third segments. 



E. tenax is the largest and most widely distributed 

 species of our Egyptian Syrphidfe; it is also fairly conunon. 

 I possess spécimens from Cairo, Alexandria, Mariout, Fayoum, 

 Wadi Hoff, etc. and it will certainly be found in many 

 other localities; my dates exîend from January to danuaiy of the 

 following year. It is also probably the most widely distributed 

 species of the Syrphidse in the world, and Verrall states that it 

 occurs wherever man bas established any system of tlrainage, 

 whence it is essentially known as the Drain Fly, though from its 

 resemblance to the maie of Apis melllfica it is known in England 

 a* the "Drone Fly". It occurs in nearly ail Europe, India, China, 

 Japan, Cape of Good Hope, North America, Ethiopian Région 

 and New Zealand. 



