DISCHISTUS. — SYSTffiCI-IUS. 275 



shanks ; feet piceous ; wings colourless, dark brown at the base 

 and slightly so along the fore borders ; the border of this brown 

 is very oblique, and it slants towards the hinder base of the 

 wing; its outskirts are confined to the sides of the cross-veins; 

 wing-ribs and veins piceous ; poisers tawny. 



" Length of the body 3 lines, of the wings 7 lines. East Indies." 



Type in the British Museum. 



Genus SYSTCECHXJS, Lw. 



Systcechus, Loew, Neue Beitr. iii, p. 34 (1855). 



Genotype, Bombylius sulphureus, Mikan (Europe) ; by Coquil- 

 lett's designation (1910). 



This genus differs from Bombylius chiefly by the two basal cells 

 being practically equal in length, owing to the position of the 

 anterior cross-vein near the base of the discal cell. Eyes in c? 

 sometimes separated by a narrow frons. Tip of 3rd antenna! 

 joint without the small obvious style present in Bombylius. 

 Pubescence of abdomen said to be longer and more ragged than 

 in Bombylius* 



Range. World-wide. 



Fig. 16. — Systcechus, Lw., wing. 



Life-history. The early stages of S. autumnalis and S. oreas, a 

 Europeau and North American species respectively, have been 

 observed by Portchinsky and by Biley. The larvae live in the 

 egg-cases of locusts ; they are whitish, cylindrical, amphipneustic, 

 and 13-segmented, much as in Bombylius. The pupae also 

 resemble those of that genus. 



Table of Species. 



1. Legs with at least femora black ; abdomi- 



nal spines black 2. 



Legs wholly or principally yellow 3. 



2. Pubescence pale to bright yellow socius, Walk., p. 276. 



Pubescence nearly white nivalis, Brum, p. 277. 



3. First and 2nd antennal joints brownish 



yellow; femora and tibise wholly bright 



brownish yellow; abdominal spines [p. 277. 



yellow Jlavospinosus, sp. n. ; 



Antenna; all black; femora brownish . . . . eupogonatus, Big., p. 278. 



* This is so in many species ; I cannot vouch personally for the constancy 

 of the cbai-acter. 



x2 



