Go to National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa
Volume 49, 1916
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E. hoheria n. sp.

A medium-sized slender and dark-coloured fly, with tawny bands on legs and clouded wings with clear spaces.

♀ Head broader than thorax at humeri; eyes bare, dichoptic more so toward the vertex, occupying most of head in profile, no transverse depression, facets of uniform size lower two-thirds darker than upper third; front shiny black with short hairs and a patch of white, slightly yellow

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pubescence above antennae and extending over the face, which, has a black medio-longitudinal stripe and longer hairs than on the front. Mouth-parts tawny, proboscis light in colour; palpi completely tawny, the penultimate joint narrow and slightly restricted along middle of sides, bearing long and delicate hairs and about one and a half times the length of the ultimate which is clavate, bare on proximal half but with dense stiff and short hairs and numerous pits on distal half, terminating in at least 1 terminal and 1 subterminal stiff hair.

Antennae dark brown, situated about the middle line and not as long as width of head; 1st joint about twice the length of 2nd, and both bristly; 3rd joint with 8 segments, the first of which is the largest; terminal segment a little longer than the 1st and notched at apex, on one side of which is a tuft of hairs; the whole joint has a dense and stiff pubescence.

Occiput depressed, shiny black with a yellowish-grey tomentum.

Dorsum of thorax greenish-black with violet reflections and dusted with a yellowish-grey tomentum; pleurae coppery with a violet reflection, excepting the sterno-pleurae which are black; scutellum bluish-green but narrowly margined with tawny at the apex, the 4 tawny spines small or indistinct.

Halteres pale yellow with dark-brown heads.

Legs banded with tawny and fuscous, the latter separated by the former, which lies in the middle; posterior femora (which are enlarged) and their tibiae distinctly banded, the middle femora faintly banded being mostly tawny, the anterior tawny; middle and anterior tibiae tawny but for proximal fuscous bands; posterior protarsi and epitarsi light brown, the remainder dark; middle protarsi light brown with a dark distal spot, the remainder dark brown; practically all joints of anterior tarsi dark brown. In form the tarsi resemble the preceding species.

Wings (fig. 8) clouded, axillary angle strongly curved; costal cell widened; 1st submarginal cell proximally acute, the anterior cross-vein and 3rd longitudinal vein having a common origin from the 2nd vein. Third vein strongly sinuated, the anterior branch arising acutely beyond the centre, sinuated slightly, and nearly twice as long as anterior cross-vein, which is slightly anteriorly oblique. Third posterior vein reaching about half-way to the posterior margin. Vein between the discal and 5th posterior cells a little more than half the anterior cross-vein. Distance from the margin of the confluence of the 5th and 6th veins about twice the length of the anterior cross-vein. Veins brown; submarginal cell clouded with dark brown, costal cell clear; 1st submarginal cell clear except proximally and along the branch of 3rd vein; 2nd submarginal cell brown; 1st posterior cell brown, except for a narrow elongate space near the middle; 2nd posterior cell brown except for a space toward the margin; 3rd and 4th posterior cells brown except for a large and square space on distal half into which runs the 3rd posterior vein; 5th posterior cell clear proximally the brown cloud being triangular in form; axillary lobe distinct, with a slightly clear space proximally along the 6th vein; anal cell clear but for a small cloud along the 6th vein near the confluence of the 5th; 1st and 2nd basal cells clouded on proximal half and clear distally; discal cell clouded.

Abdomen with 7 segments, narrower than the thorax at the base but becoming wider at the middle, tapering to a point and terminating in the bifid tawny and styliform appendage. The whole almost blackish-bronze, the 3 apical segments lighter; 1st segment faintly tawny in the middle; 2nd almost all tawny but for sides and posterior margin; the 3rd with a broad tawny spot toward the anterior margin. Ventrally the

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colour is bright yellow margined with black-bronze, except the 2 apical segments which are coloured below as above.

The ♂ is smaller than ♀. Thorax black-bluish-green; scutellum bright bluish-green, the spines short and tawny. Wings with no clear spot in 2nd posterior cell; space in the 3rd and 4th posterior cells smaller, 3rd posterior vein in one specimen not reaching this space but in another entering it—that is, the 3rd posterior vein of former specimen not reaching half-way to the margin and not more than half-way in the wing of the latter.

Abdomen long and linear, slightly restricted along the middle sides and not quite as broad as thorax; 1st segment without a tawny spot; spot of 2nd smaller than that of ♀ and with a faintly darker central stripe; the 3rd segment with a clear tawny spot on the anterior margin, and the 4th with a similar but smaller spot.

The ♀ and smaller ♂ were bred by Mr. Philpott from pupae found under the bark of a dead bbonwood-tree at Wallacetown, while a larger ♂ was captured by him on a tree-trunk at night on the West Plains

Another ♂ captured by him in Otago measures only 7 mm., and wing 5 mm. The tawny spots of the abdomen are here indistinct, only to be faintly seen in certain lights, and the wings are not so deeply clouded with brown; in this case the 3rd posterior vein barely reaches half-way to the margin.

♂. Length, 8–9 mm.; wing, 6.25–6.75 mm.

♀. Length, 8 mm; wing, 7 mm.

Habitat.—West Plains (Otago), February, Wallacetown, October.