FAM. EMPIDIDZE 47 
I1. GENUS MEGHYPERUS, Loew 
Meghyperus, Loew, Stettin Ent. Zeit. Vol. r1, p. 303 (1850); Bigot, Ann. Soc. Ent. France (3), Vol. 
5, p. 560 (1857); Schiner, Fauna Dipt. Austr. Vol. 1, p. 78 (1862); Bigot, Ant. Soc. Ent. France 
(6), Vol. 9, p. 118 [1889] (Meghyerus); Coquillett, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 18, p. 390 (1895); 
Melander, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. Vol. 28, p. 255 (1902); Coquillett, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. 
Vol. 5, p. 253, 259 (1903); Melander. Williston s Man. Dipt. N. Amer. 3 ed. p. 224 (1908); 
Kertesz, Cat. Dipt. Vol. 6, p. 2 (1909); Coquillett, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. 37, p. 566, (1910). 
Characters. — Small shining black species with forked fourth vein, conical style-bearing outer 
antennal joint and well developed alula. Head globular, eyes of the male contiguous from the antennze 
to the vertex, facets of the lowest third minute, eyes of the female broadly separated, the front shining, 
face short, cheeks very narrow ; proboscis of sudeticus short, but in the American species the proboscis 
of the male slender, projecting horizontally forward, slightly longer than the head, the palpi linear 
elongate and porrect, and of the female the proboscis three times as long as the head, porrect, tipped 
with a distinct labella, the palpi short and clavate, attached to the proboscis near its base; antennae 
two-jointed, the thickened style of the outer joint in the American species slightly less than one-half 
the length of that joint and tipped with a minute bristle, but in sudeticus the style is aristiform, tapering 
and longer than the antennz. — Mesonotum moderately arched, its hairs roughly arranged in acrostichal 
and dorsocentral rows, the hindermost dorsocentrals bristle-like, no hairs on the posterior declivity, about 
six marginal scutellar bristles, three notopleurals; pleure entirely pollinose and bare. Abdomen with 
loose long white hairs; male abdomen cylindrical, pygidium small, bilateral, the lateral valves fleshy 
and reniform ; female abdomen tapering and less hairy. Anterior legs slender, no bristles, hind femora 
scarcely thickened and not at all spinose, hind tibi: somewhat clavate, particularly in the male, hind 
metatarsi somewhat swollen, pulvilli small. Wings hyaline, a more or less distinct oval stigma surround- 
ing the end of the first vein, veins strong, costa straight, continuing to the anterior branch of the 
fourth vein, basal bristle small, costal hairs poorly developed, auxiliary vein distinctly separated from 
the first vein and vanishing at its end, third vein simple, petiole of the fourth vein as long as or longer 
than the posterior crossvein, basal and anal cells coextensive, anal crossvein rounded so as sometimes to 
meet the anal vein at a right angle, anal angle of the wing prominent, rectangular, alula of male much 
larger than that of the female. 
Type species : M. sudeticus, the original species.. The genus is interesting in the kind of sexual 
dimorphism it displays; the broad front of the female, her lengthened proboscis and shortened palpi and 
the difference in the size of the alula are unique in the Hybotinz. The European sudeticus differs rather 
strangely from the American species in having a very short proboscis, a lengthened arista and, in the 
female, a bulbous face. 
Geographical distribution. 
1. M. nitidus, Melander, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. Vol. 28, p. 255, pl. 7, . 72, 'W. United States. 
73 (1902). 
2. M. occidens, Coquillett, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 18, p. 435 (1896); Melander, '"W. United States. 
Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc. Vol. 28, p. 255 (1902). — PI. b, Fig. 40. 
3. M. sudeticus, Loew, Stettin. Ent. Zeit. Vol. r1, p. 303, pl. zr, fig. 40, 42. C. Europe. 
(1850); Schiner, Fauna Dipt. Austr. Vol. t, p. 78 (1862). 
