This insect is entirely wingless. Head circular and flat, placed under the first segment. Antennæ composed of five equal articulations. Body rounded at top, forming an arch equal to one-fourth of a circle, and consisting of nineteen rings or scales, which lie very closely over one another, the hinder part of one exactly fitting the fore part of the next. Each of these scales, except some near the head, have four short feet fixed to them; the whole number of which is sixty. The general colour of the insect is whitish grey; the under part being lighter than the upper. Along the middle of the latter runs a darker shade, having a single spot of a wainscot colour placed on the middle of each scale.
PLATE XLIV.
MYDAS CLAVATUS.
Plate [XLIV]. fig. 1.
Order: Diptera. Section: Notacantha, Latr. Family: Mydasidæ, Leach.
Genus. Mydas, Fabr. Latr. Midas, Weidemann. Musca, Drury, De Geer.
Mydas Clavatus. Niger, abdominis segmento secundo aurantiaco, alis nigris. (Long. Corp. 1 unc. 3 lin.)
Syn. Musca clavata, Drury, App. vol. 2. (1773.)
Bibio filata, Fabr. Mant. Ins. 2. 328. 1. (1787.) Syst. Antl. 60. 1. (Mydas f.) Weidemann Aussereur. Zweifl. Ins. 1. 240. 3. tab. 11. fig. 3. Ditto in Nova Acta Nat. Curios. vol. 5. p. 2. pl. 53. fig. 8.