498 
Obscn-ations on the various Insects 
joint long ; second as stout, oval; three following very minute and 
saucer-shaped; sixth and seventh stout, cup-shaped ; the remainder 
forming a compact black ovate-conic club : head large and trans- 
verse, face orbicular, including the eyes, which are very large, 
lateral, reddish brcwn, orbicular, coarsely reticulated and ap- 
proaching each other on the crown : ocelli 3, forming a long 
triangle, prominent and larger than usual, especially the apical one : 
thorax oval, as broad as tlie head; the sutures deep, forming 4 
very convex protuberances : abdomen very much compressed, not 
longer than the thorax, and somewhat elliptical viewed laterallv, 
with six distinct segments, and a short exserted slender process at 
the apex : wings ample, very transparent, iridescent ; superior 
with a subcostal nervure reaching nearly to the middle, where it 
unites with the costa, and a little bevond it forms a short branch, 
terminated by a minute dot : legs simple and slender : tarsi five- 
jointed, dirty white, darker at the tips (fig. 3 ; /■, the natural size) : 
length tliree-fourths of a line, expanse one and two-thirds of a line. 
The female is scarcely so large, and differs, I tlilnk, in having 
shorter antennae, with a more abrupt club ; the face is very con- 
cave, forming a broad deep groove : the 3 ocelli are placed in a 
transverse line at the back of the crown : the eyes are not large, 
but bromi, oval, and remote : the abdomen is very much com- 
pressed, the back forming a sharp edge, and it is very deep viewed 
laterally, the apex is truncated, and an oviduct enclosed between 
U\o valves projects beyond it ; fig. 4 ; g, the natural size.* 
There is also a group of flies b^donging to the Order Dipthr.a, 
and the Family Empid.e, forming the Genus Empis, several 
species of which carry off and devour the Tipula Tritici.j jNIr. 
Ku'by has not recorded the species ; but to enable the agriculturist 
to recognise this useful tribe of flies, I will figure one nanicd by 
Linnaeus Empis livida, w hich is abundant everywhere at the end of 
June, and I have repeatedly taken it in corn-fields : fig. 5; m, the 
natural dimensions. 
4. Empis livida. — Male deep ochraceous, clothed with short 
black pubescence and scattered bristles : head small, globose ; eyes 
large and contiguous; ocelli 3, placed at the back of the crown in 
a triangle : antenna? inserted in front of the face, approximating, 
stretching forward, shorter than the head, and five-jointed ; two 
basal joints brown and bristly; first elongate-ovate; second sub- 
globose, the remainder black ; third compressed, much longer than 
the first, dilated at the base and tapering to the ajjex ; fourth 
minute, cup-shaped ; fifth elongated and forming a shortish 
* Mr. Haliday has described two more species of this genus in vol. iii. of 
the Trans, of the Ent. Soc, p. 295 ; he found all of them in various wild 
flowers. 
t Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. v. p. 105. 
