208 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vox 2ed3 
with in mellinum @. Meijere’s redescription of the species is 
wholly applicable to the specimens referred by me to orientale. 
It was my impression at first that the facial bump was not so 
large or conspicuous as in mellinum, but an examination of a large 
number of specimens shews that there is no difference. Moreover, 
such examination has revealed the existence of an apparently 
undescribed form (pl. xiii, fig. 3) with a facial profile inter- 
mediate between orientale and univittatum, in which the central 
bump though distinct is much less conspicuous than in orzentale. 
This form is represented by a dozen females from the Simla and 
Darjiling districts, the United Provinces, Bengal and Bangalore. 
It is further distinguished from the specimens representing my 
final view of orzentale 9 by the rst pair of abdominal spots being 
larger than in orventale, oval, and carried over the side of the 
2nd segment below the base. Also the hind femora are all 
yellow, the hind tibiae bearing only an indistinct median dark 
band which is frequently absent. 
Meijere reports the Ist pair of spots in ortentale as smaller, more 
rounded and ‘‘petty”’ as compared with mellinum, whilst 
Wiedemann describes them as obliquely placed 
These twelve specimens approach my wnivittatum 2 , but the 
presence of the small though perfectly distinct facial bump at 
once separates them. When all the specimens are examined in 
conjunction with a series of wnivittatum 92 they are seen to be 
almost certainly specifically distinct. I am at a loss to satisfac- 
torily dispose of them, but as there are no males with the same 
characters, to set them up as a new species would be premature. 
Melanostoma univittatum, W. o 9. 
(Plate xiii, figs. 4-6.) 
2 Syrphus planifactes, Macq. 
Wiedemann described only the ~ of this species, nor have 
I seen any mention of the @ having been described. Nine speci- 
mens in the Indian Museum can hardly fail to be that sex of 
this species. They possess the smooth face without any trace 
of a central bump so characteristic of univittatum, and the pecu- 
liarity of the Ist pair of spots being fully as large as the others, 
with their bases on the anterior border of the segment or 
enclosing the anterior angle of it, or carried over the side just below 
the base. These front spots are sometimes whitish in colour, 
and occasionally occupy the whole of the segment, the colour 
extending well over the base of the 3rd segment also. The Ist 
pair of spots in univittatum o also occupy nearly all the znd 
segment, and have their bases on the anterior border of that 
segment; although a more suitable description would be to regard 
the abdomen as reddish yellow, with a narrow black median line 
and the posterior borders of the segments narrowly black, the 
colour extending slightly forward towards the sides. The hind 
