157 



Family CYRTID^E. 



Head very small, subglobular, almost wholly consisting of the 

 enormous eyes, which tire contiguous in both sexes ; vertex very 

 small ; frons generally very small. Proboscis varying from very 

 thin and elongate (MS in some BOMBYLIID.E) to very short or 

 obsolete; palpi generally obsolete. Antennae approximate at 

 base, placed in some genera well above, in others well below the 

 middle line of the -head, 3-jointed, variable in shape, 1st joint 

 sometimes minute. 



Thorax greatly humped ; prothorax sometimes (PHILOPOTIN^E, 

 non-Oriental) enormously developed ; pubescence moderately 

 thick, sometimes furry ; scutellum lai-ge, without bristles ; rneta- 

 uotum generally concealed by it. 



Abdomen very broad and gibbous, often quite globular and 

 pellucid, normally 5-segmented ; pubescence variable ; genitalia 

 inconspicuous. 



Legs simple, comparatively short, rarely with a short blunt spur 

 on middle tibiae, or with one developed and one less developed spin- 

 on posterior tibiae, or a circlet of very short spines on front tibiae : 

 3 pulvilli; empodium as pad-like as outer pulvilli; claws long. 

 The entire body is wholly devoid of spines or strong bristles. 



Wings diverging and deflexed when at rest, longer in than in 

 J ; venation very characteristic, but a general interpretation of 

 its varied forms would be out of place here, as only four genera 

 are Oriental. Ambient vein at times quite absent, even above 

 the wing-tip ; auxiliary and 1st veins long, 2nd vein often absent; 

 praefurca beginning about opposite the base of the discal cell ; 

 anterior cross-vein near base of discal cell, sometimes very short 

 or absent; 3rd longitudinal vein generally forked ; posterior cross- 

 vein present or absent, 4th vein with manifold ramifications ; 5th 

 vein generally forked; anal vein present, sometimes weak and, with 

 the axillary vein, possibly absent. Technically two submarginal 

 cells and from three (sometimes apparently only two, owing to 

 the dividing vein being obsolete) to five posterior cells. The 

 venation in this family is, perhaps, not thoroughly understood 

 yet.* Thoracic squamae enormously developed and very promi- 

 nent, wrinkled, and generally pubescent, their size being one of 

 the chief characters of the family. 



Life-history. The metamorphoses of several species are knownf, 

 the larvae being parasitic in the egg-cocoons or the abdomens of 

 spiders. The larva is amphiueustic (though Konig describes that 

 of Oncodes as metapneustic), short, thick, 12-segmented, with very 



* See Verrall, Brit. Flies, v, p. 447 et seq. 



t At-tomclla linden it, Ericlis., Brauer, Verh. zool.-hot. Ges. Wien, xix, p. 737, 

 pi. xiii, figs. l-(i (1869), and in Denks. Ak. \Viss. Wien. xlvii, pi. v, figs. 89-92 

 (1883). Oncodes pallipes, Lntr., Menge, Schrift. Danzig. Natur. Ges. i, p. 37 

 (18C>6); Oncodes fumatiis, Erichs., Brauer, Verb, ssool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xix, 

 p. 737 (186'J). Henops brit, 

 List, xx, p. 100, pi. x(1888). 



