The Ohio 'i^Caturalist, 



PUBLISHED BY 



The Biologkcil Club of the Ohio State Uni'versity, 



Volume XIV. DECEMBER. 1913. No. 2. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



HiNE— The Genus Myiolepla 205 



ScHAFFNER— The Classification of Plants, XI 211 



BiLSiNG— Preliminary List of the Spiders of Ohio 215 



ScHAFFNER— The Sprouting of the Two Seeds of a Cocklehur 216 



Summer iu a Bog 217 



McAvoY— Meeting of the Biological Club 217 



Philpott— An Addition to the Odouata of Ohio 219 



HiNE— A Kote on Anax longipes Hagen 219 



THE GENUS MYIOLEPLA. 



(Family Syrphidae.) 

 Jas. S. Hine. 



The insects falling in this genus are modest colored, medium 

 sized flies usually found about flowers of various kinds in spring 

 or early summer. About a dozen valid species have been described; 

 three or four from the old world, two from South America and 

 seven from North America. M. luteola Gmelin, from Europe, 

 is the type species. 



The marginal cell of the wing is open, the anterior cross- 

 vein is distinctly before the middle of the discal cell; antennas 

 short, but located on a distinct prominence, third segment rather 

 large with a long bare dorsal arista inserted near its base; legs 

 rather stout, all the femora enlarged, and serrate towards the tip 

 but without any distinct tooth, tibiae all curved. The eyes are 

 holoptic or nearly so in the males and rather widely separated in 

 the female, bare in both sexes. Face hollowed out beneath the 

 antenna with a prominent facial tubercle in the male followed 

 by an equally prominent oral margin ; in the female the concavity 

 beneath the antennse is a steady curve to the oral margin. 



The genus was founded by Newman in 1838 in his Ento- 

 mological Magazine, Vol. V, p. 373, as Myolepta to receive M. 

 luteola Gmelin. In 1844 Rondani proposed the name Xylotaeja 

 and placed in it Syrphus valgus Panzer. These two species are 

 now considered as belonging to the same genus and since the 

 former, more correctly spelled Myiolepta, has priority it is used 

 by modern students. It is of interest that Walker has referred 

 to this genus as Leptomyia in Insecta Britannica Diptera Vol. 

 I, p. 254. The species do not appear to be so common as many 



205 



