276 BOMBYL1ID.1'. 



The distinctions between these alleged species are not at all 

 clear. I liave not seen eupoc/onatus, which may be the same as 

 socius, the words "legs reddish, femora brownish" being applicable 

 to a specimen with the femora more brown than black ; whilst 

 the rest of the description would apply quite well to Walker's 

 species. My nivalis differs from socius only in the nearly white 

 pubescence, and may represent only an individual variation. There 

 may, therefore, be only two species, socius ai:d Jlavospinosus, with 

 the addition of an undescribed one in bad condition in the British 

 Museum. 



218. Systcechus socius, Walk. 



Bombylius socius, Walker, Ins. Saund., Dipt. pt. 3, p. 201 (1852). 

 Systcechus socius, Brunetti, lfec. Ind. Mas. ii, p. 458 (1909). 



cC 2 ■ Head blackish grey ; eyes in <S distinctly but narrowly 

 separated at nearest point of approximation ; vertex with 

 numerous short stiff hairs ; ocelli reddish ; frons with long 

 black bristly pubescence ; face in J with a few long whitish 

 scales, more or less depressed, amidst numerous long dark brown 

 bristles ; in $ , with a considerable quantity of long bristle-like 

 whitish scales extending from eye to eye ; mouth-opening with 

 dense long blackish-brown scale-like bristles, some whitish pubes- 

 cence around lower part of mouth-opening, which is itself whitish ; 

 lower part of head whitish grey, with dense elongate very thin 

 white scaly pubescence ; antenna? black, 1st joint with long dark 

 brown bristles ; probo>cis black, as long as the head and thorax 

 (not scutellum) together; back of head with very dense long 

 bristle-like scales, varying from pale to bright yellow ; lower eye- 

 margins witli whitish scales. Thorax black ; dorsum, pleura?, and 

 scutellum wholly covered with dense elongate scales forming a 

 close thick pubescence, varying from nearly whitish to deep 

 yellow, almost orange, that below the shoulders being generalky 

 deeper in shade than that on the thoracic dorsum ; scutellum with 

 hind part always more or less reddish brown, sometimes practically 

 entirely so ; a row of yellow spines on hind margin. Abdomen 

 black; densely covered with similar bristle-like pubescence to 

 that, of the thorax ; a row of black spines near hind border of 

 each segment from the 3rd onwards ; venter black, with long 

 pale yellow hair-like scales ; base of some of the middle segments 

 often reddish brown. Legs : femora black, with minute whitish 

 scales; tibiae paler or darker brown, sometimes blackish at tips, 

 especially the hind pair; tarsi black, underside pale brown. 

 Wings pale grey ; base, costal cell, and the veins on basal half 

 brownish ; halteres cream-yellow. 



Length, 7-11 mm. 



JJedescribed from several of each sex in the British and Indian 

 Museums, the Pusa and my own collections. 



This species extends from the Himalayas to Ceylon: Kashmir, 

 1915 (H. T. Pease); Dehra Dun, xnl907 (Lt.-Co/. WyvilU 



