58 DESCRIPTIONS OF THE 



three little eyes are pale, nearly limpid, placed on the front of 

 the head between the eyes, in a triangle, which generally has a 

 dark colour ; the parts of the mouth are small ; the peristoma 

 (or cavity to which the base of the mouth is attached, and in 

 which it is commonly retired during repose) is round, oval, or 

 angular ; the facialia, which border upon its sides, are fringed 

 with black hairs ; the epistoma (or front of the peristoma) is 

 often prominent; the feelers are moderately long, their tips 

 armed with a few black bristles : the antennae are 6-jointed, 

 short ; the first and second joints have a few black hairs above, 

 the former is small, the latter larger, cup-shaped ; the third is 

 still larger, its shape varying from round to cylindric; the 

 fourth and fifth are very small, the former joins the base of the 

 third ; the sixth is long, dark, like a bristle, almost always 

 downy, the thorax is arched, oval, sometimes nearly square ; 

 the scutellum prominent ; the abdomen is oval, rather longer 

 than the thorax, more or less arched, sometimes cylindric or 

 round ; it has five cross segments, of which the basal one is the 

 largest; on each side beneath is a long, sometimes hardly 

 seen, striped plate, hiding part of the segments of the belly : 

 the telum is smooth and shining, of the female long, with four 

 segments like tubes ; the ovipositor is red, hidden within the 

 telum when not in action ; the legs are slender, straight, 

 hairy ; the tips of the tibia? armed with two black spines ; the 

 soles of the feet pale ; the claws black ; the wings are mode- 

 rate, downy; the five long and two cross nervures nearly 

 straight, one of the latter is in the middle of the wing, the 

 other much longer and nearer the tip ; at the base of the wing 

 are some little nervures, more or less indistinct ; the costa is 

 hairy, joins the fourth nervure at the tip of the wing, and has 

 two bristles towards its base ; the winglets are obsolete. 



Among the British species, the snowy white Urellia, the 

 rich saffron Forellia, the prettily-spotted Orellia, and the deep 

 brown Noeeta, with its brilliant jet scutellum, are remarkable 

 for their beauty. 



Desvoidy has divided his Myodarice into nine families; 

 the Tephritites, or Aciphoreae, as he calls them, in allusion to 

 their telum, form the sixth ; he has again divided these into 

 seventeen genera, that are arranged as follows : — 



