230 PIPUNCULID.E. 



longiores. Oculi marisfronte contigui, fcem. distantes. Fcem. Abdomen 



apice incurvo laraelliformi. 



Body small, slender, pubescent, black, dull. Head transverse : face 

 orbicular, with a row of bristles on each side. Eyes large, ovate, with 

 a few bristles on each side. Ocelli 3, seated on a tubercle. Proboscis 

 slightly projecting. Palpi bare, clavate, shorter than the labium. 

 Labium short. Antennas 5 -jointed, subsetaceous, pubescent, inserted 

 near the middle of the face, approximate at the base, nearly as long as 

 the head ; first and second joints beset with a few bristles ; first some- 

 what cyathifonn; second larger, nearly oval; third fusiform; fourth 

 minute; fifth long, setiform, hairy to the tip. Thorax subglobose; 

 fore part very gibbous, and projecting over the head; scutellum a 

 little elevated. Wings incumbent and parallel in repose. Alulae very 

 small. Halteres large, uncovered. Abdomen with six segments. 

 Legs simple, unarmed, almost bare; tibise subclavate; tips of the 

 tibiaB slightly spurred ; hind tarsi slender ; hind metatarsi very long ; 

 onychia small, hairy. Male. Eyes connected. Fern. Eyes remote. 

 Abdomen ending in a recurved oblong plate. 



The Opetia appear in summer and autumn on leaves of shrubs. 



1. nigra, Mg. zw. vi. 357. 1 (1830); Mq. ; Zit.lonchopteroides 

 (fcem.), Hal.; Ct. ! b. e. 489. 2. Nigra, alis cinereis ad costam 

 fuscis, abdomine nigro-fusco. Long. 1 ; alar. 2f lin. 



Black, thinly clothed with black hairs. Eyes red ; facets of mo- 

 derate size. Wings grey, brown beneath the fore border ; veins black. 

 Halteres and abdomen dark brown. Legs clothed with very short 

 black hairs. 



Generally distributed. (E. S. I.) 



FAMILY XXIV. PIPUNCULID.E. 



PIPUNCULID^:, Ct. Syrphits p., LI. Megacephali, Mg. Cephalopsides 

 p., LI. Syrphici, Fin. Pipunculini, Ztt. 



Caput hemispharicum, oculis maximis peristoma stringentibus, fronte et 

 epistomate angustissimis. Proboscis brevis, maxillis nullis, palpis 

 erectis. Antenna articulo tertio compresso deflexo, arista dorsali sub- 

 erecta. Alee vena ambiente nulla, cubitali simplici, areola brachiali 

 utraque completa, lobo axillari rotundato. Tibias apice muticaB. 

 Abdomen segmentis sex. 



Head large, hemispherical, with concave occiput versatile on a pro- 

 jecting slender neck of prothorax. Eyes very large, bordering the 

 narrow peristoma, unarmed ; face and front narrow linear, the eyes in 

 the male sometimes meeting on the front. Ocelli three in a triangle 

 on the vertex. Antenna short, the third joint compressed and deflected, 

 bearing above a slender ascending arista, 3-jointed, the first two joints 



