Soufh African and Oriental Asilinse. 183 



tomentnra, yellower at the sides, the brown median stripe 

 is divided into two narrow ones, side-stripes composed of 

 blackish spots as usual, three in number; pubescence on 

 dorsum black, a few white hairs near the black bristles 

 at posterior border. Scutellum the same as thorax with two 

 blade bristles. Abdomen dusky-looking, with the usual 

 brown spots, tiie grey segmentations narrow, bristles at sides 

 yellow. Legs blackish, the hind legs entirely so ; femora 

 and tibiae elsewhere reddish below and on outer sides ; tarsi 

 blackish ; pubescence on legs whitish and thick, bristles 

 almost entirely black, with the exception of the two or more 

 long yellow bristles on the fore tibiae and those on the fore 

 tarsi. Wings tinged yellow, the shading on apex prolonged 

 on posterior border to fourth posterior cell. 



Female identical, only one long yellow bristle on fore 

 tibiae. 



Philodicus fruternus, Wied. 



Zool. Mag. i. p. 3 [Asilus] (1819) etc.; Bigot in Thorns. Arcliiv. Ent. 

 ii. p. 355 [Philodicus] (1858) ; Scliiner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 

 xvi. p. 689 (1866), et xvii. p. 390 [Alcimus] (1867). 



In spite of Schiner stating that the above is an Alcimus 

 species — he having seen the type, — it appears from what 

 Wiedemann says in his description that it undoubtedly 

 belongs to this genus, as he remarks that the small trans- 

 verse vein very near the base of the fork of the third vein 

 is not so near as in Alcimus hospes, which latter is also, I 

 believe, a species of this genus. 



It appears to be a common species on the West Coast of 

 Africa^ judging from the series of specimens in the Erit. 

 Mus. and I. E. E. Colls, ranging from Sierra Leone to 

 Nigeria; Gambia; Yapi, Soro River, N. Territories, Gold 

 Coast ; and Cotonen in Dahomey 70 miles west of Lagos. 

 One female from Chiude, Mozambique, in South African 

 Museum Coll. {K. H. Barnard). 



A blackish species with black legs; the femora red on the 

 under sides and outer sides, and the tibiae the same ; tarsi 

 reddish with black a|)iccs. Wiedemann makes no mention 

 of the colour of the bristles on the legs ; they are usually all 

 black on the hind legs, with some white bristles on the others 

 intermixed with the black ones. The fore tibia) and tarsi 

 have long yellow or reddish bristles as in Philodicus turinas, 

 in the female they are often more largely white in colour ; 

 the fore femora on the underside usually with one or more 

 white bristly hairs near the base and fine white hairs. 



