TCMPIDiE. 
605 
Fig. 398 —Empid (Hybos sp.) 
Simla x3. 
Empimi, 
Generally small flies with distinct neck and small round head with a pro¬ 
jecting horny proboscis . Eyes often meeting in the male. Antennce 
3-'jointed, 3rd joint usually with a terminal style. Squamce very small 
or absent. Legs often spined or thickened. Pulvilli long. Venat on 
variable, anal cell often very short owing to the turning back of the 2nd 
branch of the cubitus. 
This is a rather large family of predaceous flies with apparently few 
species in the plains In their mode of life and often in general appear¬ 
ance they are like the Asilidce, but (ex¬ 
cluding hill and forest areas) the latter 
are in India distinctly the dominant 
group, the reverse of what is the case in 
Europe, where the Ernpids fill the same 
place in nature as is occupied in the 
Indian plains by the very abundant 
Asilids of that region : they are as a rule 
slenderly built, with a rather long thin 
abdomen; in habit they are somewhat 
more purely aerial than are the Asilids, and have usually very good 
control over their flight. They are also much less bristly and hairy 
than Asilidce, while their eyes have no deep furrow between and 
are closer together. (Osten Sacken associates the absence of large 
bristles and presence of large eyes with aerial habits : i.e., a being 
characteristic of fliers rather than walkers.) Some of them suck 
flowers as well as the juices of insects, and they appear to prey far 
more exclusively upon other Diptera than do the Asilidce (Poulton) : 
with this their weaker build may have something to do. 
The sexes are easily distinguished, as the genital organs are usually 
quite clearly distinct in structure in the same way as in Asilidce. Both 
sexes indulge at times in aerial dances, which seem to be connected 
in curious ways with the sexual relations of the insects (Howlett, Ent. 
Mo. Mag., 1907 ; Hamm, ibid., 1908 & 1909) ; the study of these aerial 
dances has been neglected, but it is certain that it would reveal many 
points of interest. 
The life-history is not known for any Indian species, but in Europe 
the larvae are generally found in earth or under decaying leaves, 
