164 CYRTID/I-. 



bluntly truncate tip; 3rd elongate lance-shaped, bare, shining, 

 produced into a long style, which is longer than the entire 

 antenna. Thorax and abdomen densely pubescent. Legs of 

 moderate length, simple. Wings with auxiliary vein ending 

 about middle of costa ; 1st longitudinal ending towards wing-tip, 

 nearly straight; 2nd starting soon after humeral cross-vein, 

 nearly parallel with 1st, both slightly upturned at tips; 3rd 

 beginning immediately beyond base of 2nd, descending in a 

 straight line diagonally across the wing, forking abruptly beyond 

 its middle, the two branches curving upwards, practically parallel, 

 ending above wing-tip ; 2nd submarginal cell truncate at base ; 

 anterior cross-vein just beyond origin of 3rd vein, very near base 

 of discal cell, short ; upper branch of 4th longitudinal vein 

 forked at tip of discal cell, at which point a short transverse vein 

 connects with the forking of the 3rd vein ; lower branch of 4th 

 vein simple, suddenly recurrent towards tip, ending jointly with 

 upper branch of 5th vein at about middle of hind border of wing ; 

 discal cross-vein long, closing discal cell ; 5th vein forked at half 

 its length ; upper branch meeting 4th vein at middle of discal 

 cell ; lower branch closing anal ceil well before margin ; posterior 

 cross- vein absent, axillary vein foreshortened. Two submarginal 

 cells ; five posterior cells, 1st divided by a transverse vein,* 4th 

 closed. Squama? very large. 



Range. Europe, India, Australia, North and South America. 



Life-history apparently unknown. 



The present description is built up mainly on L. aurata, as the 

 genus does not appear to have been diagnosed since Wiedemann 

 founded it. Some of the characters herein given may require 

 modification, as no other species is available for comparison. 



125. Lasia aurata, sp. nov. 



Head with A r ertical triangle black, roughened, elevated, with 

 long chrome-yellow, rather drooping, bristly hairs ; eyes black, 

 facets very small, of uniform size, with no trace of any transverse 

 channels across the discs ; frontal triangle elevated, black, shining, 

 bare. Antennal 1st and 2nd joints bright yellow, short; 2nd 



* In his notes on the genus Lasia (Brit. Flies, v, p. 450) Verrall distinctly 

 states that the extra cell "is a second portion of the upper basal cell and not a 

 basal part of the 1st posterior cell," and he compares the venation with that 

 cf the Nemestmnidje, but I venture to think that the anterior cross-vein (also 

 recognised by Verrall as such) cannot be placed in the basal ceil, but must, 

 when present, invariably divide the 1st basal from the 1st posterior cell. It 

 seems to me that the short cross-vein connecting the 3rd and 4th veins in 

 Lasia and one or two other genera in this family (Eulonchus, Pteropexus, 

 etc.), represents the point, at which in the Nemestrinid.e the 3rd and 4th veins 

 anastomose, which in that family occurs in contact with the discal cell and 

 not distinctly beyond it as in Cyrtidje. Even if in Nemestrinid^e this 

 usually punctiforni contact is replaced by a short cross-vein, it should be 

 regarded as identical with the same extra cross-vein in Cyrtid.e and 

 not as the anterior cross-vein, which would, therefore, be wholly absent in 



NeMESTRINID/E. 



