THE CONOPIANS. 
611 
« 
resembling it is figured in Griffith’s translation of Cuvier’s 
“ Animal Kingdom,” under the name of Myopa nigripennis. 
It is found on fences around gardens in May and June. 
It sits with its wings half spread, moves slowly, and flies 
heavily. My SpJiecomyia valida^ though rather shorter than 
the preceding, has a thicker body. Its color is brownish 
yellow, and it is striped with brown. The wings are trans¬ 
parent, and are mottled with small, dusky spots. 
Some of the Conopians (^Conopidce) still more closely 
resemble slender-bodied wasps than the 
preceding Sphex-flies. Conop% mgittaria 
(Fig. 269) of Say Wiedemann) 
might almost be mistaken for a species of 
Eumenes. Its hind body is very slender 
and cylindrical next to the thorax, and 
swells out behind. Its antennae are long, and thickened 
towards the end. Its proboscis is very long and slender, 
elbowed at the base, and extends far beyond the head. This 
fly is of a black color; the rings of the hind body are edged 
with white ; the face is yellow; the logs are brownish yellow, 
sliaded with black on the thighs; and the wings are black, 
with two uncolorcd and wavy spaces on the inner margin. 
Its body is five eighths of an inch long, and its wings expand 
rather more than three quarters of an inch. This fly may 
be found sucking the honey of flowers in June and July. 
The Greeks gave the name of Conops to some stinging 
fly or gnat. The Conopians undergo their transformations 
in the bodies of humble-bees, their young subsisting on 
the fat contained within the abdomen of their luckless 
victims. 
A host of flies, forming nearly one third of the whole num¬ 
ber of species in the order Diptera, will be found to have a 
short and soft proboscis, ending with large fleshy lips, enclos¬ 
ing only two bristles, and capable of being drawn up within 
the cavity of the mouth. Their antennae are generally short, 
hang down over the face, and end with a large oval joint, 
Fig. 269. 
