394 u October, 



Rondani. If I were about to revise the generic arrangement of the 

 Anthomyiidce, I should be tempted to expunge this genus and insert a 

 new one in its place, next to Hyetodesia (Aricia*), and include in it 

 all those species with hairy eyes and toothless femora, which have a 

 pubescent instead of a plumose arista, only moderate though unequal 

 sized alulets, and an oblong or conical instead of an oval abdomen. 



I shall arrange the observations which I have to make concerning 

 different species under the respective genera to which they belong. 



HYETODESIA, Mde. 

 H. VAGAisrs, Eln. 



I inserted this fly in my list upon the authority of Walker, though I doubted 

 whether it was a distinct species, as all the specimens I had seen so named were 

 identical with H. basalts, Zett. ; through the kindness of Dr. Schnabl, however, I 

 have now obtained both male and female specimens of what seem to me to be the 

 true M. vagans of Fallen, and they are quite distinct from H. basalts, Zett. 



Fallen describes the two points which are characteristic of this species, when he 

 says that the eyes are only pubescent and separated a little from each other in the 

 male. His words are " oculi vix hirsutuli in mare approximati non coherentes." 

 Zetterstedt points out the same peculiarities, but they have been overlooked by 

 Meigen, Macquart, Schiner, and Walker. In distinction from this, H. basalis has 

 the eyes of the male furnished with long hairs, and quite contiguous. There are 

 also several other characters by which these two species may be known from each 

 other, viz., M. vagans is rather larger than H. basalis ; the colour is more ash-grey 

 in the former, while it is yellow-yrey in the latter ; the face is rather more promi- 

 nent and the cheeks deeper in H. ragans than in H. basalis ; the palpi are much 

 thicker in H. vagans than in H. basalis ; the fore femora are more or less blackened 

 in H. vagans, while they are usually quite pale in H. basalis; and lastly, the middle 

 stripes upon the thorax are placed nearer together in the former than in the latter 

 species. The female of H. vagans resembles the male in all the principal characters, 

 the eyes are about as hairy as those of the male, while in H. basalis, though the 

 males have the eyes long haired, those of the females are almost naked. 



This species seems to be very rare, except in the north of Europe ; I have not 

 seen a British specimen. 



H. VARIEGATA, Mgn. 

 I formerly looked upon this species as only a variety of M. scutellaris, Fin., but 

 upon the examination of a specimen kindly sent to me by Dr. Schnabl, I find that 

 there are several decided points of distinction between them. The male has the 

 head wider and the eyes a little wider apart in H. variegata than in H. scutellaris ; 

 the aiitennse are rather shorter in the former than in the latter and entirely black or 

 grey, while the basal joints are usually rufous in H. scutellaris ; in H. variegata the 

 shoulders of the male are usually concolorous with the rest of the thorax, while 

 they are more or less rufous or fulvous in H. scutellaris ; in H. variegata the scu- 



* If the above scheme was carried out, I should be inclined to re-introduce the name of 

 Aricia instead of Hyetodesia, as I think it was changed by Rondani upon insufficient grounds. 



