DIPTEROUS FAMILY PA^TOPHTHALMIDiE. 575 



associated with two J c? of P. tahaninus Thunb. and all three spe- 

 cimens stood above the label " Acanthomera seticornis Wied. c? ," 

 in Macquart's handwriting {vide supra, p. 563). 



In the male sex, at any rate, Fantophthalmtis versicolor, by 

 means of the characters mentioned in the diagnosis printed in 

 italics nbove, is readily distinguishable from any of its congeners 

 at prosont known. From the male of P. tahaninus Thunb., for 

 which at the first glance it might possibly be mistaken, the male 

 of the present sjiecies can be distinguished at once owing to its 

 smaller and differently shaped head, duskier and differently 

 striped thorax, and broader and flatter, sharp-edged abdomen, 

 the sides of which are devoid of white spots, and are not black on 

 the basal half. 



Pantophthalmus pictus Wied. 



Acanthomera picta Wiedemann, Diptera Exotica, p. 61, Tabii. 

 fig. 2 (1821). 



Acanthomera Jlavipes Macquart, Mem. Soc. roy. des Sc, de 

 I'Agric. et des Arts de Lille, Ann6e 1846, p. 42, Tab. i. fig. 2 

 (1847). [New synonym.] 



Acanthomera magnifica Walker, Ins. Saund., Diptera, Part i. 

 p. 74, pi. 1. fig. 1 (1850). [New synonym.] 



Acanthomera teretruncum Fiebrig, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Insekten- 

 biol., Bd. ii. pp. 345-347, figs. 17-19 (1906). 



Of this species, which is the genotype of Acanthomera Wied., 

 the British Museum (Natural History) possesses a S from an 

 unknown locality in Brazil (purchased from — Argent, 1847) ; 

 a $ (the holotype of Acanthomera magnifica Walk.), from 

 " South America " {ex coll. W. W. Saunders) ; and a second $ , 

 taken at Sapucay, Paragu.ay, 21. i. 1905 ( IF. Foster). The type of 

 Acanthomera magnifica V^alk. represents a form of the species in 

 which the dorsum of the abdomen is for the most part ferru- 

 ginous, tawny, or orange-cinnamon instead of black, the latter 

 colour being confined to the base (first visible tergite, except its 

 hind border), ovipositor, and a blotch at each lateral extremity 

 of the second to the fourth tergites inclusive. Tn the case of the 

 type of A. magnifica, moreover, the whitish transverse streak 

 near each posterior angle of the third ventral scute is wanting, 

 but this is doubtless due to individual variation. 



From the Bigot collection, thanks to the generosity of Mr. J. E. 

 Collin, the National series has been enriched by the type of 

 Acanthomera flavipes Macq. (stated by Macquart— Zoc. cit. — to be 

 from Brazil),'and two other $ $ , all of which unfortunately are 

 without locality labels. In the case of Macquart's type the 

 abdomen is russet-brown (" brun vineux," apud Macquart, loc. 

 cit.), a fact which misled Enderlein (Zool. Anz., Bd. xli. p. 101 

 (1912)) into treating A.fiavipes Macq. as specifically distinct from 

 A. picta Wied. Enderlein, however (t. cit. p. 105), is perfectly 

 correct in regarding A. teretruncum Fiebrig as a synonym of 



