RHAPHIUM. 193 



exceedingly short, so that the arista is close to the tip. Thorax above 

 with a rusty tinge, opake, faintly striped. Prosternum unarmed. Wings 

 dark hyaline, with the veins blackish to the root ; the transverse vein 

 and dot of the subapical clouded with brown. Halteres dusky. Legs 

 blackish, the tip of the femora., the tibia, and the base of the tarsi 

 ferruginous-, the fore tibia darker, and almost unarmed, the bristles 

 on the others very few and slight ; the posterior femora near the tip 

 in front, and the posterior coxse outside, have each a single one of the 

 same sort. The male is unknown. 



Very rare. In Messrs. Dale's and Haliday's collections. (E. S.) 



Genus VIII. RHAPHIUM. 



HHAPHIUM, Ztt. ; Lw. Hydrochus, Fin. Porphyrops, Mg. (1830). 

 Rhaphium et Porphyrops, Mq. ; Ct. Rhaphium (1803) et Porphy- 

 rops p., M. (1824). Rhaphium, Perithinus, et Plectropus ) Hal. 

 Dolichopus p., Fb. s. a. Musca p., Fb. Anglearia, Carlier. 



Antennae articulo tertio apice sensim attenuato aut lineari, arista apicali 



vel subapicali. Proboscis obtusa. Vena transversa a margins distans. 



Hypopygium maris immersum. Tibiae spinulosae. 



Antennce with the first joint naked, the third joint linear, or tapering 

 gradually ; the arista at the tip, or nearly so. Proboscis short, obtuse. 

 Eyes pubescent, distant on the front. Discal transverse vein distant 

 from the hind margin of the wing ; subcostal vein not surpassing a third 

 of the length of the wing, ending nearly opposite the middle of the 

 discal areolet. Hypopygium of the male short, imbedded in the ventral 

 cavity. Tibia, at least the posterior pairs, armed with spines, both at 

 the sides and tip. 



This difficult genus lias been well elucidated and amplified by 

 Loew, in an elaborate critical review of the European species, 

 inserted in the Stettin 'Entomological Journal' for 1850. He 

 has considered it as a receptacle for the species excluded from 

 the other genera with terminal arista. Accordingly a natural 

 character can scarcely be framed for it, containing, as it stands, 

 three, if not four, groups that claim generic rank, but which it 

 will be rather the province of a monograph to establish. The 

 analytic table, and observations thereon, will supply as much as 

 seems requisite, in this respect, for the purposes of a simple fauna. 

 The correct discrimination of the species, as Loew has shown, 

 rests chiefly on the characters drawn from the male sex ; but in 

 the previous steps of the analysis the distinctive characters com- 



VOL. i. 2 c 



