FAM. EMPIDID/E 279 
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' Characters, — Minute, slender flies of shining jet-black color and almost devoid of hairs and 
bristles. | Head globular, the occiput hemispherical or conical, its hairs sparse; eyes large, with large 
facets, those on the upper part a little smaller, broadly contiguous on the face in both sexes; front narrow, 
its sides straight and nearly parallel, slightly broadening above; three large ocelli, ocellar and vertical 
bristles minute; cheeks wanting ; proboscis shorter than the head, rigid, vertical, not broadened at the 
base, palpi slender, ribbon-like, in the male sometimes remarkably broadened apically, vertical and 
applied against the proboscis, whose length they equal or exceed, tipped with one or several bristles; 
antenne short. two-jointed, the basal joint without setze, the outer joint rounded oval, with long, slender, 
nearly bare, terminal or subterminal arista. 
Thorax longer than broad, not greatly convex, considerably narrowed from the wings forward; 
humeri greatly enlarged and constricted by a furrow from the disk of the mesonotum; sometimes a 
minute humeral bristle present, one notopleural, one postalar on a prominent callus, two or four 
scutellars, the lateral pair normally small, acrostichal setulze microscopic, practically absent, dorsocentral 
setule uniseriate, minute, the hindmost longest but not as strong as in Tachyfeza; no pleural bristles. 
Pygidium small, more or less globular, or triangular in outline; abdominal segments not pitted 
laterally. Legs slender, cursorial, the front femora strongest, devoid of bristles but with microscopic 
hairs, those of underside of front tibiz serrately arranged, no spurs or spines present: the male of Tacoma 
with the middle legs deformed, but in the other species the males have at most small flexor spines on 
