1894-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 273 



on the ground near the platform. It seems to be a rare insect in 

 collections. 



Sawflies were abundant, and I found on windows and walls, 

 and about plants, Tenthredo grandis, T, tricolor, T. variata, 

 Macrophya nigra and many other species; and I took one day, 

 resting on the floor of platform, a single specimen of Lyda semidea 

 Cress. In Parasitica, too, I found some rare things; among 

 others several specimens of a Euceros, which Mr. Davis pro- 

 nounces new. 



But it was in Diptera that I made my most interesting captures. 

 Flies were swarming and buzzing everywhere. Around every tuft 

 of arenaria, or spike of mountain golden-rod, hovered Echinomyia 

 florum Walk., a big black fly with sides of abdomen deep red; 

 with it flew Jurinia algens and many Syrphidae. Of this last 

 family Syrphus torvus and .S. contumax were the most common. 

 Didea laxa, with its markings of greenish blue, is not rare. This 

 was first described by Osten Sacken from the White Mountains. 

 It was interesting to re-find so many of the species named by that 

 pioneer in this branch of our science, some of them having been 

 rarely, if ever, found since their description by him. One day 

 in my room I saw resting on the outside of a pane of glass in the 

 upper sash of my window an odd fly. It was not an easy thing 

 to capture it, but I managed to reach out and upward and place 

 the mouth of my poison-bottle over the insect; an hour later I 

 found a duplicate on the parlor window. It proved to be a very 

 interesting insect, Arthroceras leptis O. S. It is described in a 

 note at the end of Catalogue of Diptera from three females taken 

 by E. P. Austin in White Mountains, and, as far as I can ascer- 

 tain, has not since been found. Osten Sacken refers to it as a 

 ' remarkable insect, looking like a Leptid with the antennae of a 

 Cccnomyia." Mr. Coquillett writes to me of it as "a most in- 

 teresting form, completely uniting the two families Xylophagidae 

 and Leptidae." It was first placed by describer in the genus 

 Arthropeas. On a bit of golden-rod growing between the rocks 

 near the barn I took another very rare fly, Tcmnostoma venustum 

 Willst. This is a large, handsome black and yellowish striped 

 fly not unlike- a hornet ( Vespa) in appearance. Of this Mr. Co- 

 quillett writes: " Your specimen is the second one known to exist 

 in collections, and your capture is a most interesting one." The 

 type is in the National Museum, and was taken by Mr. S. Hen- 



