ERIOCERA. 543 



Length 25-28 millini. 



Described from two males in the Indian Museum, one from 

 Trivandrum, Travancore State, June 1893, and the other from 

 some part of South India, taken June 18JJ3, 



The great length of this species makes it easily recognisable. 



394. Eriocera nepalensis, Westw. 



daloptera nepa/r>is/s, Westwood, Ann. Soc. Ent. France, iv, p. G81 



{18.:J5) ; id., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1881, p. 379. 

 ? Pterocosmus velutinus, Walker, List Dipt. Brit. Mus. i, p. 79 (1848). 



S $ . Head blackish grej', with black hairs ; \ertex con- 

 siderably prominent ; back of head velvet-black, with black hairs. 

 Antennae and palpi blackish, shortly pubescent. Tliorax velvet- 

 black, with very short brown hairs; scutellum, metanotum, and 

 sides of thorax concolorous. Abdomen velvet-black. In male, 1st 

 segment short, black ; 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th elongate, the basal 

 third of each occupied by a dull steel-coloured band, the middle 

 third by a whitish or bluish grey band, sometimes more or less 

 distinctly divided by a nai'row black line into two bands ; the 

 liinder third velvet-black ; remainder of abdomen velvet-black. 

 Genitalia dull steel colour. In the female the steel bands are not 

 obvious ; the basal half or two-thirds of the 2nd segment has a 

 whitish or bluish gi-ey band; a similar band, generally broadly 

 interrupted in the middle, on the basal half of the 4th segment, 

 and an entire similar band on the base of the 5th ; the rest of 

 the abdomen velvet-black. Ovipositor bright reddish orano-e. 

 The markings of both sexes are liable to a little variation, the 

 grey and the steel bands in the male at times taking a sort of 

 intermediate shade. One male in the Indian Museum has the 

 abdomen almost wholly black ; one of the females in the Vienna 

 Museum has the 3rd segment with a whitish grey longitudinal 

 streak. Lens wholly black ; coxte ^ith a little very soft hair. 

 Wings moderately dark brown ; bright orange-N-ellow at the base 

 up to a little beyond the humeral cross-vein ; and with a clear 

 transverse somewhat narrow streak from the 1st longitudinal 

 vein, reaching barely or quite to the hind margin, where it 

 narrows ; this band being situated so that its distal margin is very 

 close to (sometimes a little beyond) the origin of the 3rd vein, the 

 discal cell and the posterior cross-A'eiu. The 2nd longitudinal 

 vein forks at about half its length : the anterior cross-vein is at 

 or just before the middle of the discal cell, and opposite the fork 

 of the 2nd vein ; the posterior cross-vein more or less in a line 

 with it. Halteres blackish. 



Length, ^^ 18-25 millim., 5 15-18 millim., excl. ovipositor 

 3 millim. 



Eedescribed from a male and female in cop. from Xagarkot, 

 Nepal (the male only 16 mm. long), live other males and seven 

 other females, all in the Indian Museum ; two females from 

 Assam, in the Vienna Museum ; and two females from the Khasi 

 hills, Assam, 3000 to 5000 feet, 15. v. 05, in the Pusa collection. 



