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II. Asilidse from Aden and its neighbourhood. 

 By F. M. VAN DER WULP. 



[Eead November 2ncl, 1898.] 



Plates II. and III. 



Colonel J. W. Yerbury, being desirous to increase our 

 knowledge of the fauna of the countries bordering on the 

 gulf of Aden, made during his residence there a rather 

 large collection of Diptera. He has been kind enough to 

 send me the Asilids, and has at the same time communi- 

 cated to me the results of his preliminary examination, 

 results which prove him to be by no means a tyro in 

 dipterology. 



The localities in which the Asilids have been collected 

 are : Huswah, across Aden harbour on the sea-shore ; 

 Shaik Othman, 6 miles from Aden; Lahej, 15 miles inland 

 from Aden ; and Haithalhira, 19 miles from Aden. There 

 were no specimens from the opposite (African) coast of 

 the gulf of Aden. Nevertheless the collection shows a 

 decided African character and a total want of East-Indian 

 forms. 



The following species, belonging for the most part ta 

 genera almost exclusively African, are represented in it. 



Dasypogin^. 

 1. Saropogon melampygus, Low. 



Saropogon melampygus, Low, Bemerkungen iiber die 

 Asiliden, p. 10 ; and Systematischre Beschreibung, 

 i, p. 90. 



Several specimens of both sexes from Lahej and Shaik 

 Othman. Low has described only the female ; his speci- 

 mens were from Syria. All the females before me have 

 the mystax yellow ; even the lateral bristles which, accord- 

 ing to Low, are sometimes black. In one of the males 

 the whole mystax is likewise yellow, but the other male 

 specimens have a black mystax, often with some pale 

 bristles in it. I see no other difference, and I think all 

 belong to one species. Some of the females agree fully 

 with Low's ample description. In most specimens the 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1899. — PART I. (APRIL) 6 



