I9I3-] m;. Bezzi: Indian Trvpaneids {Fruit-Flies). 147 



Becker has characterised the genus well and considers it alhed to Acidia, but 

 distinguished by its bare third vein and different head. He calls it erroneously Sphae- 

 niscus, which must be amended to Sphenisciis ; but in this form the name is twice 

 preoccupied in zoology, by Brisson, 1760, in birds and by Kirby, 1817, in Coleoptera. 

 I have therefore proposed the new name given above. 



Head broader than high ; face a httle concave, narrower than the frons, which is 

 broad at the vertex and becomes more narrow toward the base of the antennae ; eyes 

 large, almost rounded ; frons a little prominent, the epistome not prominent at all ; 

 cheeks narrow ; antennae placed a little below the middle of the eyes, the third joint 

 pubescent, rounded at the tip, twice as long as the second; arista bare or with only 

 microscopic pubescence ; oc. strong ; or. 2. 2 ; vt. very long ; pvt. parallel; genal bristle 

 strong; occipital row well-developed, black. Proboscis short ; palpi not large, bristly. 



Thorax short and convex, entirely black and with complete chaetotaxy ; i mpl. ; 

 pt. strong. Scutellum rounded, convex, with 4 bristles, the apical pair only a Httle 

 weaker than the basal, converging at the apex. Abdomen short, rounded, convex, 

 distinctly narrowed at the base, without any lateral or apical bristles ; ovipositor long 

 and broad, flattened. Legs short ; front femora below with a row of 4 — 5 bristles; 

 middle tibiae with a single spur. 



Wings of usual shape, with distinct costal bristle ; first vein short, ending far in 

 front of the small cross-vein ; second straight ; 3rd and 4th a little curved ; small 

 cross- vein placed toward the apical fourth of the discal cell, perpendicular, its distance 

 from the hind cross-vein equal to its length ; posterior cross-vein long and perpendi- 

 cular ; third vein bare ; inferior angle of anal cell short and broad , shorter than the 

 second basal cell. Pattern of the wings very characteristic, black, with deep hyaline 

 indentations at fore and hind border, or, to put it in another way, hyahne, with 

 4 black bands united together at the fore border or in the middle. 



Type : Trypeta quadrincisa , Wiedemann, 1824. 



It seems that only two species of this genus are known ; but they have a very 

 wide distribution in South Europe, Africa and Asia, as may be gathered from the 

 numerous synonyms here reported. 



The two Indian species can be distinguished as follows : — 



1 (2). Hind tibiae black with yellow ends ; wings with only three hyaline 



indentations at the hind margin .. .. .. quadrincisa, Wied. 



2 (i). Hind tibiae entirely yellow; wings with four hyaline indentations 



at the hind margin . . . . . . . . sexmaciilata, Macq. 



51. Spheniscomyia quadrincisa, Wiedemann. 



(PI. X, fig. 52). 



Wiedemann, Anal, entom., 55, 122 [Trypeta] (1824) and Auss. Zweifl., ii. 508, 50 [id.] (1830) ; 

 Schiner, Dipt. Novara Reise, 264, 99 [Acidia] (1868) ; Osten-Sacken, Annal Mus. civ. Genova, xvi. 459 

 [id.] (1881) ; Wulp, Cat.describ. Dipt. S. Asia, 189 [id.] {i8g6).—brevicaiula, Bjcker, Mittel!. Zool. Mus. 

 Berlin, iv, 138, 401, pi iii, fig. 42[Sphai'niscHs] {igo8).—filiola,l,oew, Zeitschr. f. ges. Naturwiss , xxxiv, 

 12, I [Aciura] {l86g). —Tucia, Walker, I^ist Dipt. Brit. Mus., iv, 1021 [Trypeta] {i8ig).—Tacia Wulp, 



