106 DIPTEB.A. 



tellum with a yellowish-white tomentum and a row of stiff black bristles. Ground-colour 

 ofZabdomen black; first segment on each side witb a tuft °^™^^ t 

 a sparse fringe of them along the hind margin; second segment black, with a feint 

 LTak of mfcroscopic fulvous tomentum in the middle; the following segments are 

 denl cloTed with a recumbent, short, yellowish tomentum, more whitish on the hind 

 iTrls of the segments; in the middle of each segment the tomentum being less 

 Tense leaves a dark spot, which, in connection with similar spots on the next segments 

 foTs'an ill-defined longitudinal dark stripe; rows of black erect pne on each segment 

 Zl tL yellow pubescence ; the black pile is more dense on the sides and at the end 

 of the bodv ; the sides of the two last segments are clothed with whit.sh scale-hke ^pile; 

 the same whitish scales form subjugular spots on the hind comers of the third and 

 fourth segments, connected with the fringes of whitish hairs on the hind margins of 

 L segments. Femora black; four front tibia, and tarsi dark brown ; fron femora 

 sparsely beset on the anterior side with whitish-grey scales. Halteres yellow, the knob 

 £1 spot. Wings greyish-hyaline ; their root, *e costal cells, the two basal 

 cells and the proximal ends of the anal and axillary cells pale reddish-brown ; a trar* 

 ^darker brown cloud on the small cross-vein, and on the bifurcation of the second 

 and third veins; another darker cloud, coalescent with the brown of the base of the 

 wings, lies between the origin of the pnefurca and the cross-vein at the base of the 

 fourth posterior cell. The stump of a vein on the anterior branch of the third vein » 

 small sometimes obsolete ; that on the curvature of the second vein is moderately long, 

 there'is none in the third posterior cell. Length 10 to 11 milium 



"Hal. Dallas, Texas (Boll). Three specimens, male and female. The description 

 was drawn from a well-preserved female." 



The larva of A.. fur in Texas lives in the nest of a mud-wasp (Trypoxylm,™ stated 

 by Prof. Riley, not Pelopms, as 1 had supposed in the < Western Diptera ), forming 

 tubes of clay five or six inches long, pasted together like organ-pipes. The spemmen 

 described by me was pinned immediately after escaping from the nest, and was therefore 

 more intact than an ordinary collection specimen. For this reason my descnptmn of 

 the hairs and scales of the body cannot be expected to agree m every pomt with every 

 specimen. Specimens of Argyrammba cephm were bred from the same nest. 



ASTKOPHANES, gen. nov.* 

 The contact of the eyes on the vertex, the almost rudimentary development of the 

 enlargement at the base of the costa, and the closed anal cell are the most striking 

 characters which separate this genus from Anthrax. The contact of the eyes and the 

 large triangular front of the male constitute apparently a pomt of relationship with 

 oZodocera and Lomatia ; but in A. adonis the anterior cross-vein comcides with the 



* Astrophanes means shining like a star. 



