390 platypeztd.t:. 



me out a few from Holland, but they were rendered useless iu 

 transit, apparently through the box being opened by the Censor 

 and insecurely re-packed. The only discrepancy between the 

 Coonoor specimen and Verrall's figure ('British Flies,' v, fig. 51 r 

 p. 29) is the presence in the former of the bristle near the hind 



Fig. 38. — -Lonchoptera lutea, Panz., $ . 



corners of the dorsum of the thorax, in a line with the hindermost 

 pair of dorso-centrals. This bristle is not shown in Verrall's 

 figure. 



Three other forms of Lonchoptera have come before me, of which 

 one is very striking, but it has unfortunately been accidentally 

 damaged. The wings bear a conspicuous black band. The body 

 is wholly black, the antennae and legs yellow, the fore tibiae and 

 tarsi quite black. A single § from Kumaon in the Pusa collection. 



Family PLATYPEZIDtE. 



Head large ; face small, broad, depressed down the middle in 

 both sexes. Eyes bare, Inrge, contiguous for a considerable dis- 

 tance in <S witli enlarged upper facets; wide apart in §. Antennas 

 3-jointed, short; arista long, bare, apical. 



Thorax subquadrate, somewhat arched, not pubescent, but with 

 a few chaetotaetic bristles, which are more distinct in the £ ; 

 pleurae bare ; scutellum with marginal bristles. 



Abdomen narrower and generally longer than the thorax ; 6- or 

 7-segmented ; genitalia in S more or less incurved. 



Legs (except in one non-Oriental genus, Opetia) with hind 

 tibiae dilated towards tip, and hind tarsi considerably dilated on 

 first three or four joints. 



Wings with a characteristic venation, peculiar to this family; 

 auxiliary, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd veins long and nearly straight; 4th vein 

 simple or forked, turned upwards towards tip in Platypeza and 

 ending in wing-margin shortly but distinctly below tip of 3rd vein, 

 so that the 1st posterior cell is always open ; 5th and 6th veins 

 straight, simple. Discal cell present or absent; basal cells short; 

 anal cell always longer than 2nd basal, even if only slightly so. 

 Squamae of moderate size ; halteres large. 



The females of many species are of quite different coloration 

 from the males, showing conspicuous, brightly-coloured marking* 

 on the thorax and abdomen. 



