OCR Text |
Show 98 MISS G. RTCARDO ON A NEW SPECIES OF FLY. [Feb. 6, forehead at the vertex protuberant. Head bee-like in shape, the antenna? inserted rather more than half way down the head. Abdomen with six segments, the second one the largest. Proboscis short, hardly projecting beyond the palpi. Legs with all the tibia? wide and flat, like those of the ordinary hive-bee (Apis mellifera L.), with fringes of black hairs on each side, the hind tibia? being largest, not, however, concave as in the bee. Wings with all the posterior cells open and the anal cell closed ; no appendix. MELISSOMORPHA INDIANA, sp. n. The single specimen on which this genus is founded is a marvellously close imitation of Apis dorsata F.: when placed near the latter it has a wonderfully general resemblance to it, though away from all the natural surroundings. The colouring and shape of the abdomen distinguish it and, of course, the absence of the second pair of wings. The type is a female from Bungaroom, 7000 feet, 7 miles from Darjeeling, April 1900 (Col. Bingham). Black. Face brown, with black pubescence and some golden hairs intermixed. Forehead long, equal in width, rather broad, black wTith brown tomentum and black pubescence and some golden hairs; the vertex is shining black, protuberant, with three large reddish-brown ocelli, thence the forehead slopes downwards to the antenna?, which are reddish brown, the third joint being darker; they are long and slender, the first joint nearly twice as long as the second, both with black pubescence, the third joint with the first division as long as the other five, which are short and equal in size, with the exception of the last one, which is longer and ends in a point. Palpi yellowish, long, the first joint short, stout; the second long, curved, ending in an obtuse point; the pubescence is black. Abdomen long: the second segment slightly broader than the rest; the first and second segments bright fulvous, with yellow pubescence, the remaining segments opaque, black ; the third and fourth with a narrow fringe of yellow pubescence on the posterior borders, otherwise the pubescence is black ; the under side similar ; the hairs on the sides of the abdomen are black on the black segments, on the second segment yellow, with the exception of a tuft of black hairs towards the under side. Legs dark reddish brown, the front ones blacker; all the tarsi pale yellow, the pubescence black, some yellow hairs on the side of the tarsi which are black at their apices; the pulvilli large, the claws long. Wings rich brown in colour, hyaline at the extreme base, ;ind nearly so on the posterior border; the brown becomes fainter at the apex, being most intense round the stigma and in the centre of the wing; veins yellowish brown, the first longitudinal vein black, thickened except at its base. Haltercs yellowish, the knob brown. Length 17 millim. |