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E. straznitzkii Nowicki
E. straznitzkii Nowicki, Mem. Krak. Akad. Wissen., 2, p. 14 (1875); Hutton, Trans. N.Z Inst., vol. 33, p. 4, and Cat. Dipt. N.Z., p. 36.
A moderate-sized fly, purplish in colour, with tawny scutellum and legs and a transverse cloud on wing.
♀. Head broader than the thorax at the humeri; eyes bare and dichoptic, occupying almost the whole of the head in profile; a delicate restriction across the eye from just above the antennae, becoming faint toward the occiput; facets of uniform size. Front depressed, of a shiny blackish-blue colour, with a dense silvery pubescence just above the antennae, other-wise with minute scattered hairs; on the front above the antennae is a circular depression from which runs a central groove to the base of the antennae.
Antennae elongate, about one and a half times the width of head and situated a little below the middle line; dark brown, except the 2nd joint and the 1st segment of the 3rd which are brownish yellow; 1st joint about one and a half times the length of the 2nd, and with a vestiture of delicate black bristles; 2nd joint with stronger bristles; 3rd joint pubescent, densely so distally concealing the segmentation. When cleared and
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examined under a high power 8 segments may be distinguished (fig. 5). Many sensory pits may be seen on these segments, especially toward the outside.
Face silvery tomentose except for a nude and black medio-longitudinal stripe; upon the tomentum, in certain lights, are a few black spots. Mouth-parts tawny, completely withdrawn except for the apices of the palpi. A few hairs around the oral aperture and longer posteriorly.
Thorax on the dorsum shiny and dark reddish-purple, dusted with a tawny tomentum; humeri tawny; pleurae shiny pitch-black with a faint purplish reflection and short silvery down at times indistinct. Scutellum and the 4 spines tawny. Halteres light yellow.
Legs tawny, posterior femora thickened; tarsi darker at the apex, especially those of the anterior and middle legs, almost the whole of the former velvet-brown. Length of tarsal joints as in preceding species.
Wings (fig. 6) with costa straight along the costal cell; anterior cross-vein and 3rd longitudinal not having a common origin from the 2nd vein but nearly so, the 1st submarginal cell being thus proximally acute. Anterior cross-vein curved a little and slightly anteriorly oblique but not short. The remainder of venation practically identical with that of apicalis. A dark-brown band across the wing covering the marginal and discal cells and becoming lighter toward the posterior margin; both sides of this band are irregular, and the apex of the marginal cell may be clear. Proximal of the band the wing is faintly tinged with yellow, darker in the costal cell, and the veins yellow; between the band and apex the wing is faintly brown, with brown veins.
Abdomen beyond the middle broader than the thorax, of a shiny-cupreous colour, with a distinct purplish tint, dusted with tawny, and bearing yellow hairs at the sides.
Genital organs represented by a pair of tawny and styliform appendages.
♀. Length, 8 m.m.; wing, 7–5 mm.
Hutton gives the length, apparently of both sexes, as 8–11 mm., and wing 7–8 mm. I have not seen the male, and there are no specimens of the species in Hutton's collection.
Habitat —Auckland (Hutton) and Southland, January (Philpott).