224 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 'lO 



first one of the series, fax, is said to have the "arista thickly 

 plumose above, and a little on apex below," which corresponds 

 with the expression used in describing cstebana "arista dense- 

 ly short plumose above." The three species are closely inter- 

 woven in the descriptions, and the third I found to be a Cope- 

 stylum by examining material identified by Townsend himself ; 

 hence I feel certain that fa.v and in ops may be added to the list 

 to be transferred to Copestylum. In (1) Townsend for the 

 first time in print identifies a species of Copestylum, mention- 

 ing a specimen of marginatum from New Mexico. All of 

 Townsend's species are based on meagre materials in fact, he 

 hade seven species out of a total of eleven specimens. 



Snow (m) placed all three of Giglio-Tos's species as doubt- 

 ful synonyms of tnarginatum. 



In my catalogue (n), I allowed limbipennis, parvum and 

 simile to stand as valid species, not that I had any opinion on 

 the subject, but merely giving them the benefit of the doubt. 

 Distinctum, however, seemed to me to come well within the 

 range of variation of marginatum, so I placed it as a synonym 

 of that species. I had not at that time examined Townsend's 

 material, so I put all his species in the genus to which he as- 

 signed them. 



The specific names to be considered under the genus Cope- 

 stylum appear to be the following: Marginatum of Say; flavi- 

 vcntris of Macquart; limbipennis of Williston ; distinct nm, par- 

 t'lini and simile of Giglio-Tos ; cstebana, lucasana, sodomis, tol- 

 teca, inops and fa.v of Townsend. 



Bigot does not mention any Copestylums, and among the 

 numerous descriptions of Volucellas given by him I have 

 searched in vain for any mention of an antennal character in- 

 dicating a Copestylum; still the omission signifies little, and it 

 is not unlikely that an examination of his types will disclose 

 several species of this genus. 



We are now at the threshold of the main question, which is, 

 how many species of Copestylum actually exist, and which 

 names apply to them? But here T regret to say I must stop. 

 I have gathered up the threads so as to simplify the problem 



