42 SYRPIIID.K. 



Head shining black, the occiput also verv little dusted ; occipital 

 fringe of rigid white hairs well developed ; frons very short and 

 with dark hairs, the whitish transverse middle band ill-defined ; 

 antennal tubercle not very prominent, the ocellar tubercle not at all 

 prominent; face shining black, with pale grey dust and with sparse 

 pale hair on the sides, the central tubercle small but sharp and 

 prominent ; peristoma linear ; antennae very short, wholly orange- 

 coloured, with short, bluntly ovate third joint and bare yellow 

 arista ; eyes with two bands, one on the middle, the other on the 

 superior fourth. Thorax black aeneous, metallic, shining, clothed 

 with thin and depressed whitish hairs; pleune with erect short 

 hairs ; humeral calli very small and indistinct, reddish. Scutellum 

 like the thorax pale-haired ; squamulse and halteres yellowish. 

 Abdomen proportionally short ; first and second segments entirely 

 black, shining, with long erect white hairs on the sides ; second 

 segment as long as the third, not cylindrical, a little constricted 

 towards the middle, alone forming the stalk ; the third, fourth, and 

 fifth segments, forming the spatulate and rather broad portion of 

 the abdomen, are reddish with a median longitudinal black stripe, 

 and the third and fourth besides with an oblique black streak on 

 each side proceeding from the posterior corners and passing the 

 middle of the segment. After the fifth segment there is only the 

 ovipositor, which is longer than this segment, rectangular in si rape, 

 less attenuated at end and black with the base red ; it consists of 

 two broad flattened scales, a superior and an inferior one, the first 

 eiuling in three, the second in two points. Venter of a reddish 

 colour. Legs short and stout, entirely pale yellow, with a sharply 

 defined and broad black preapical ring on the hind femora. Wings 

 not widened, hyaline, vitreous, the subcostal cell only pale yellowish 

 at end ; apical brown spot not large, triangular, extending from 

 the end of the second to the third vein, and along this vein from 

 the subapical cross- vein to the tip ; third vein faintly sinuous ; 

 anal cell of usual shape ; alula and axillary lobe well developed. 



Type $ , a single specimen from Salisbury, S. llhodesia ( G. A. 

 K. Marshall). 



36. Baccha picta, Wiedemann (1830). 



A handsome species, easily distinguished on account of its 

 yellow, black-striped thorax and very broad and blackish-brown- 

 tinged wings, which bear an abbreviated middle yellow stripe and 

 a broad complete preapical hyaline band. 



Loew has already recorded the variability of this species as 

 regards the colouring of the spatulate portion of the abdomen, 

 which varies from entirely black to reddish yellow with three black 

 stripes. The black stripes of the thorax vary also from two to five ; 

 sometimes they are even dilated and fused together, the thorax 

 being therefore wholly black in front of the suture. 



The previously undescribed male is like the female, but has the 

 thorax wholly black on the back, except a reddish-yellow lateral 



