OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XI, 1909. 155 



Sabethes. Two points, however, the toothed claws and the 

 absence of metanotal setae, threw a doubt upon such identifica- 

 tion. It seemed reasonable to suppose that Mr. Busck, in his 

 examination with a hand-lens, had failed to mid the delicate 

 setae on the metanotum ; but that still left the toothed claws to 

 be accounted for. In this extremity we applied to Dr. I loving, 

 of the Copenhagen Museum, and he kindly reexamined the 

 type. The points ascertained by Dr. Hoving are as follows : 

 (1) Metanotum undoubtedly with set;e ; (2) antennre plumose. 

 the joints long, as in Sabethes; (3) palpi very short, hardly 

 one-fifth the length of the proboscis intact, without trace of 

 breakage; (4) claws of the fore legs undoubtedly toothed, 

 each claw with a small but distinct tooth near the middle : 

 (5) wing with the posterior cross-vein nearer the apex of the 

 wing than the anterior cross-vein; (6) wing with the scales of 

 the veins broad, obliquely truncate. To these characters must 

 be added the following, determined by Mr. Busck in his exam- 

 ination of the type; (7) Abdomen blue above, silvery below- 

 no trace of banding; (8) proboscis much swollen apically ; 

 (9) wing with the second marginal cell very much longer than 

 the second posterior cell. All these characters fitted Sabcth 'S 

 locuplcs Rob.-Desv., as known to us, perfectly, with the one 

 exception of the toothed claws. As the Fabrician type is 

 undoubtedly a sabethine, and we had only female specimens 

 of Sabethes before us, it seemed practically certain that the 

 Fabrician specimen is the male of Sabctlics locuplcs. It is true 

 that in the descriptions of male Sabethes available to us the 

 front claws are stated to be simple. These descriptions, how- 

 ever, are by Theobald, an author who had, in our experience, 

 proved to be unreliable in such details. While everything 

 pointed to an error in Mr. Theobald's statement, the questi< m 

 could not be considered settled until a male Sabetlics had been 

 examined by someone else. 



The opportunity came with Dr. Howard's visit to Europe 

 the past summer, and at our request he examined the material 

 in the British Museum. Dr. Howard, with the use of the com- 

 pound microscope, found that in the ( male of Sabethes locuplcs 

 the claws of the front feet have a small tooth at about the 

 middle. Thus the question is settled beyond a doubt: Culc.v 

 cyaneus Fabricius is identical with Sabethes loci/pies, upon 

 which Robineau-Desvoidy founded his genus, and with Culc.v 

 rcinipcs Wiedemann. It should therefore be known as 

 Sabetlics cvaneus Fab. Fabricius did not mention the 1110-1 

 obvious character of the species, the ciliate middle legs, be- 



