46 MTCETOPHILIU.i:, 



Thorax moderately arched, in a few cases conspicuously so ; 

 scutellum comparatively small, metauotum prominent. 



Abdomen elongate and generally cylindrical in the male, pointed 

 in the female, otiten laterally compressed in both sexes ; normally 

 6- or 7-jointed ; often contracted at the base. The male genitalia 

 are complex and prominent, variable in structure, but less so than 

 in the TiPULiDiE ; the female ovipositor short, not prominent, with 

 two terminal lamellae. 



Legs long, slender and delicate, with the coxie as a rule 

 distinctly enlarged and elongate in all the subfamilies except 

 SciAEi>^T, in which they are more nearly normal. Tibiae with 

 spurs at the tips, and often with two or three rows of bristles 

 affording good classificatory characters ; femora in some groups 

 more or less flattened and widened. 



Wings comparatively broad, o\'al or slightly elongate, humeral 

 cross-vein nearly always present, subcostal cross-vein rarely ; 

 auxiliary (or " subcostal ") generally short, rarely extending beyond 

 middle of wing ; 1st longitudinal long, the 2nd longitudinal 

 absent, the 3rd emerging from the 1st generally about its middle 

 and ending a little before the wing-tip usually at the spot or 

 very near where the costal vein terminates. The 3rd vein often 

 forked, the upper branch often short and so obliquely placed 

 as to appear as a cross-vein (especially in Macrocera and Scio- 

 PHiLiis'.E, in the latter enclosing an additional cell, by cutting off 

 the basal ])ortion of the marginal cell).* The 3rd vein in two 

 groups is coalescent with the 4th for a short distance (Macro- 

 cerintE, CeeoplatiNuE) ; the 4th longitudinal is always forked, 

 at varying distances from the base, the 5th also ; in both these 

 veins, one or both the branches may be indistinct on the basal 

 portion. Posterior cross-vein present or absent, in the latter case 

 its absence being due to the coalescence (sometimes only puncti- 

 form or nearly so) of the 4th and 5th veins. Marginal cross- 

 vein absent ; t discal cell always absent ; 6th and 7th longitudinal 

 veins more or less incomplete or indistinct in most genera, in a 

 few well developed, often one or the other rudimentary or absent. 

 One genus in this family is wingless.J In the Sciakin.e the 

 auxiliary vein is always straight and ending free, never united 

 either to the costa or the 1st longitudinal vein ; the 1st is 

 moderately long, the 3rd begins at a right angle, and the anterior 

 cross-vein is so oblique, and as a rule long, as to appear in a line 

 with that portion of it after the bend. The 4th vein is forked at 



* Being bounded by the 3rd longitudinal vein, instead of tbe 2nd, this cell 

 is technically perhaps the subniarginal. I propose the name " Sciophiline 

 cell " for it, as characteristic of this subfamily. 



t The only doubtful case is AUactoncura, Meij., q. v. 



\ Epidiipus, a non-Oriental genus. "Winnertz says tliat E. venattcus, Hal., 

 found in Europe, breeds in the rotting stems of Carphms hetulcs in company 

 with some species of Campylomyza (Cecidomyid.e). E. scabiel, Hopkins, 

 according to its author, is the cause of some disease in the potato, forming 

 a kind of scab. 



