1944 ] 
27 
Studies on Syrphid Flies 
I have carefully compared the present fly with Sbiraki’s de- 
scriptions of Japanese species and I fail to identify it with any of 
them. 
Epistrophe funeralia n. sp. 
Much smaller and unrelated by pattern, etc., to the few known 
species. 
Male. Length 9.2 mm.; wing 8 mm. Head: eyes touching for 
a considerable distance, bare, broadly excavated in the middle on 
the posterior margin; the posterior occiput is grey pollinose and 
silvery pilose, the pile becoming black towards the vertex. Verti- 
cal triangle small, brownish-black, feebly shining, black pilose. 
Front broadly opaque, brownish-black, feebly shining just before 
either antennae; the front is narrowly light brownish-orange along 
the eye margins, this area expanding opposite the antennae into 
the pale broadly yellow sides of the face. The front is extensively 
bare above the antennae; it is long, erect, black pilose on the upper 
half, shorter black pilose in the yellow margins along the eyes. 
Pile of face black, sparse, submarginal, confined to the anterior 
half of the yellow stripe. Face produced forward well beyond the 
base of the antennae with a strong, convex tubercle deeply con- 
cave beneath the antennae. Face widely shining black in the 
middle, roughly about one-half of the facial width being black. 
All of the anterior parts of the cheeks and the posterior part of 
the occiput below light yellow, obscurely brownish between. 
Antennae widely separated, the first joint black, the second joint 
very dark basally, the third and the outer part of the second 
joint light orange; the third joint broadly infuscated above. The 
arista is short, thick, dark in color, the tip black. Thorax: dark 
brown, feebly shining on the anterior part, more polished pos- 
teriorly; the humeri, a spot on the sides before the suture and 
post calli obscurely yellowish-brown. The pleurae are metallic 
brassy and anteriorly they are silvery over the metapleurae, 
pteropleurae and hypopleurae. Scutellum large, evenly rounded, 
colored like the thorax except that on either side there is an oval, 
apically separated, large diagonal but quite obscure and diffuse 
yellowish-brown spot. Pile of thorax erect, chiefly light brown 
on the dorsum, longer and black upon the disc of the scutellum 
where it is sparse; the long ventral fringe of the scutellum is 
golden-brown. Abdomen: slender, the sides almost parallel, 
tapering a little posteriorly, chiefly deep opaque black in ground 
color, the narrow posterior margins of second, wider ones of third 
