HO DIPTEKA. 



second posterior cell (it is often interrupted in the first posterior cell) ; small brown 

 clouds at the end of the second vein and of the anterior branch of the third; a brown 

 dot at the proximal end of the third posterior cell. Length 6-7 millim. 



N.B.— The description is drawn from four male specimens. A fifth specimen, about 

 8 millim. long, differs in the coloration of the last segments of the abdomen : there are 

 no silvery hairs on segment 4, which segment, like the preceding ones, has a covering 

 of yellowish, appressed, scaly hairs, among which, in the middle, a pair of whitish scaly 

 spots are visible ; segment 5 has a similar covering, but the whitish spots are replaced 

 by a pair of larger, silvery spots; on segments 6 and 7 there are many more silvery 

 scales, except in the middle ; the seventh segment is more protruding here than in the 

 other specimens. No perceptible difference in the other characters. I suppose it is the 

 female, although I cannot ascertain it from the structure of the genitals. A similar 

 specimen in Prof. Bellardi's collection, from Tehuacan (Sumichrast). 



Loew described this species from a single, abraded specimen ; for this reason I give a 

 more complete description and a figure. 



The close relationship between L. proboscidea, Loew, and L. disjuncta, Wiedem., is 

 evident; the difference, however, does not consist in the greater extent of the brown 

 pattern of the wings only, but also in other characters. The silvery scales in the male 

 begin on the third segment in Wiedemann's species, and only on the fourth in Loew's; 

 the proboscis is considerably longer in the latter; the first posterior cell, which is 

 bisected by a cross-vein in most specimens of L. disjuncta, is not bisected in my 

 specimens of L. proboscidea. 



I have eight ( 6 2 ) specimens from Tres Marias Islands, Western Mexico (Forrer), 

 which may be either a variety of L. proboscidea or a different species still. These have 

 all the brown marks of the wings larger, so as to produce a somewhat different 

 appearance of the whole pattern, the antero-proximal portion of the wing especially 

 containing much more brown. In this respect they are intermediate between L. pro- 

 boscidea and L. disjuncta. The first posterior cell is n^bisected ; the scaly covering 

 of the body seems to be the same, but the specimens are not very well preserved, and 

 do not allow a close comparison. 



An individual from Northern Sonora (Morrison) has the brown pattern of the wings 

 somewhat different from the typical specimens— all the veins ending in the posterior 

 margin (except the very last) having a small, round, pale brown spot close to the tip, 

 the other spots somewhat larger, and the five spots on the principal bifurcations and 

 cross-veins paler in the centre and, for this reason, appearing ocellate. The scaly 

 covering of the abdomen is more uniformly fulvous, and I do not see any silvery scales. 

 This may, again, be a different species. 



