104 LEPTID.E. 



Eyes in <$ contiguous for a considerable 



distance ; frons in 5 only as broad as [p. 1 til . 



ocellar tubercle Sxtbagina, Walk., 



8. Frons and side-margins of face ( d 1 $ ) dis- 



tinctly hairy. . . , Atheeix, Mg., p. 120. 



Frons in 3 and side-margins of face ($ 5) [p- H2. 



bare Atrichops, Verr., 



9. Anal cell open ; bind tibiae with two spurs . . Leptis, F., p. 124. 

 Anal cell closed ; hind tibiae with one spur [p. 128. 



only Chrysopiltjs, Macq., 



Subfamily XYLOPHAGINtE. 



Face flat, no socketed epistome margined by broad side-cheeks. 

 Palpi long, curved upwards ; the 3rd antenual joint flagelliform, 

 generally divided by annulations into seven parts, but in Rhachi- 

 cerus into many more. Eyes in <S distinctly separated, in 5 

 rather wider apart. Body and legs almost bare. Scutellum 

 smaller and metanotuin more conspicuous than in normal Lep- 

 tiDjE. Abdomen considerably elongated or cylindrical ; the male 

 genitalia rather complex, those of the § long and telescopic. All 

 tibiae spurred. Wings with auxiliary and 1st veins long, 2nd 

 shorter than in Lepxhst^e, 3rd with fork rather short, widely open, 

 lower branch ending above or at wing-tip ; anterior cross-vein 

 very short, situated towards base of discal cell ; posterior cross- 

 vein exceedingly short or absent, anal cell normally closed at wing- 

 border ; axillary vein indistinct or absent ; alulse absent. 



Life-history. " Larva amphipneustic, allied to those of Cceno- 

 MYIN7E and LeptiNjE ; carnivorous ; living under the bark of dead 

 trees and preying upon other (probably dead) larvae occurring 

 there, especially those of wood-boring Coleoptera, or upon the 

 debris and detritus left by those larvae" (Verrall). Birch, alder, 

 and pine are the trees mostly favoured. The imagos are usually 

 found about their breeding-places in woods. 



Only one genus of this subfamily [Rhachicerus) occurs in India. 



Xylophagus, Xylomyia, and one or two other genera were for 

 many years regarded as a separate family, but the resemblance 

 between them is more apparent than real ; and* Osten-Sacken, 

 who very closely criticised Brauer's paper on the characters of the 

 Notacantha (Berl. ent. Zeit. xxvi, p. 363), showed satisfactorily 

 that they (Xylojphagus and Xylomyia) cannot both come in the 

 same ultimate subdivision. 



Genus EHACHICERUS, Walk. 



Rhachicerus, Walker, List Dipt. Brit. Mus. v, Supp. i, p. 103 (1854). 

 ? Rhyphomorpha, Walker, Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. v, p. 275 (1861). 

 Antidoxion, Snellen v. Vollenhoven, Versl. Meded. Kongl. Akad. 

 van Wetensch. Afd. Natuurk. xv, p. 1 (1863), 



Genotype, Rhachicerus fulvicoll is, Walk.; the original species. 

 " Body slender, nearly linear, cylindrical. Head transverse, 

 nearly as broad as thorax, vertex narrow. Eyes large, with small 



