Descriptions of British Diptera. 455 



triangular spot before the apex, and a streak of the same near the 

 base. 



Female : hypostome and forehead greyish-yellow, each of them 

 with two shining black glabrous callosities ; antennae and palpi 

 black ; the radical joint of the former inclining to fulvous at the 

 base ; eyes golden-green, changing with the light, and marked with 

 several angular spots of purple ; thorax shining black, clothed with 

 reddish-yellow hairs, particularly on the sides, and having two faint 

 abbreviated grey lines in front : abdomen with the first segment 

 black, having a yellow spot on each side ; second yellow, with two 

 diverging black lines in the middle, enclosing a triangular yellow 

 spot ; remainder black with yellow hairs : halteres and legs black, 

 the basal joint of the hinder tarsi obscure red ; wings brownish- 

 black, with a large pale hyaline spot at the base, not reaching the 

 anterior margin, and another at the apex. 4 — 4| lines (Fig. 2.) 



The above description applies to the most ordinary states of this 

 fly, but it is one of the kinds which appear in a great variety of as- 

 pects. In the state most widely removed from the above, it is of 

 small size (3^ lines,) clothed with long pubescence, especially on 

 the hypostome and two lower joints of the antennas, and the colour 

 entirely black, the pubescence on the belly alone inclining to ferru- 

 ginous. Several intermediate varieties occur, connecting these two 

 extremes, a circumstance which disinclines us to regard any of them 

 as specifically distinct These varieties are almost exclusively males, 

 the characters of the other sex being much more constant. To some 

 of them may be referred the insects described under the names of 

 Chry. lugubris and viduatus, Fab., C. consimilis, Steph. &c. 



The females of this pretty fly are of occasional occurrence seem- 

 ingly in all parts of Britain, and in many parts of England thev 

 may be regarded as common. The males are comparatively seldom 

 met with, and both sexes become scarcer as we advance northwards. 

 Of the black variety we have seen only one or two examples, males, 

 which were taken in Sutherland shire and in the south of Scotland. 

 " Cambridgeshire, males rare," Rev. Leonard Jenyns. " Stocton- 

 upon-Tees, Cambridge," Charles C. Babinglo?i, Esq. " Wittlesea 

 Mere, &c. &c." T. C. Dale, Esq. " Dumfries-shire, vicinity of Jar- 

 dine Hall, common." Sir William Jardine, Bart. 



CHRYSOPS REL1CTUS. 



Chrys. viduatus, Fallen. Meig. Klass. tab. ix. fig. 12. Tabanus eaecutiens s 

 Panz. Fauna Germ. xiii. 24. Tab. nubilosus, Harris Expos, pi. vii. fig. 5. • 



About the size of the preceding species, or somewhat larger : hy- 

 postome and forehead yellow, with black spots, as in C. cxcuticns ; 



