108 DIPTEEA. 



distinct ioints; the minute hairs and bristles of the underside distinctly differentiated from those of the 

 upper ; no pulvilli; ungues without teeth. The contact of the fourth posterior cell with ftednod is 

 unusually long, about as long as the third vein, issuing from the discal ceU ; the distal end of the discal 

 cell is not expanded, its sides being more or less parallel ; anal cell open. The sides of the abdomen are 

 fringed, not with hairs only, but with real scales. 

 Such are the characters which define a natural group of at least three species, all from 

 Northern Mexico. The prevailing colour of the hairs of the body is brown and 

 yellowish-brown, the abdomen sometimes with paler cross-bands and silvery scales. 

 The wings, by gradual transition, pass from hyaline, with a few brownish spots along 

 the costa (L. angulus), to a broad dark brown band along the costa and a broad cross- 

 band before the apex (L. disjuncta). Lepidanthraoc will be easily distinguished from 

 the genus Anthrax, not only by the general appearance and colouring, but by its long 

 proboscis, the more distinct spinules on the front tibia?, and the venation. 



l. Lepidanthrax disjuncta. (Tab. II. fig. 7.) 



Anthrax disjuncta, Wiedem. Aussereur. zweifl. Ins. ii. p. 639 \ 

 Ha b. Mexico \ Orizaba, Tuxpango (Sumichrast). 



I reproduce Wiedemann's description : — 



"Nigella; abdomine utrinque strigis transversis argenteis ; alis ad costam, fascia 

 obliqua ante-apicali punctoque nigris. Length 6 millim. 



" Antenna? black ; third joint globular, with a slender style. Face, front, and thorax 

 with greyish-yellow pile. The hairy collar is rubbed off ; some white hairs on the sides, 

 below. Abdomen with fallow-brown, appressed, felt-like pile ; on the three penultimate 

 segments on each side are silvery cross-marks, which become longer on each succeeding 

 segment, so that the last form a cross-band interrupted in the middle ; these cross- 

 marks alternate along the lateral edges with deep black hairy tufts ; behind the fallow- 

 brown felt-like pile there are, on each segment, deep black cross-lines or spots. The 

 brownish-black of the wings reaches from the root to about two thirds of the length, 

 forms two flat curves, and contains, under the second vein, a triangular hyaline spot. 

 Beyond the brown, before the apex, there is a cross-band of the same colour ; it runs 

 obliquely, irregularly, covers the bifurcation of the third vein, is much broader anteriorly 

 than posteriorly, where it does not reach the margin ; it contains a distinct clear drop ; its 

 distal side reaches the end of the anterior branch of the fork ; near the posterior end of 

 this cross-band, on the proximal side, there is a black spot. Legs yellowish-red. 



" Variety. Without drop on the apex of the wing, in specimens where the black of 

 the apex is less extended." 



Half a dozen specimens from the above-named localities in Prof. Bellardi's collection 

 agree with this description. The silvery abdominal spots are placed on segments 3-5, 

 and not on the penultimate segments (which would be 4-6). Wiedemann's specimen 

 must have been a male and not a female, as he says. The three females which I have 



