96 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 



OBSER\^ATIONS ON JOHNSUNOMYIA FELT WITH A DESCRIPTION 



" OF A NEW SPECIES. 



BY K. P. FELT. 

 Albany, N. Y. 

 The genus Johnsonomyia Felt was erected in l'^08 for the reception of a 

 peculiar species collected in Vermont by that ardent and discriminating Dipterist, 

 Mr. C. W. Johnson of the Boston Society of Natural History. A related species 

 was found to occur rather commonly in the vicinity of Albany, a unique repres- 

 entative from Guatemala was described in 1912 and a closely allied species from 

 Brazil in 1915. The types of these, /. cincta Felt and /. brazilicnsis Felt, are 

 deposited in the U. S. National Museum and the Cornell University collections 

 respectively. There has just c(/me to hand a most remarkable form from Africa 

 and this in connection with the probable close relationship of the Australian 

 Cliastontcra Skuse indicates a presumably world wide distribution for this pe- 

 culiar genus, which latter is probably characterized l)y the possession of K) an- 

 tenna! segments and has the wing venation of a Porricondylid. though the dis- 

 tinctly heavier veins, the simple fifth vein and the marked hairiness of the wing 

 membrane suggests something unusual, which in connection with the absence of 

 circumfila. has led to the placing of the genus in the Heteropezinae. 



Johiisoiioinyia alexaiuU'ri n. sp. 



The giant midge characterizing herewith was recently received through 

 the kindness of Dr. C. P. Alexander of the Illinois State Natural History Sur- 

 vey. It was labelled Efulan, Cameroun, V-6-1920, J. A. Reis, Coll. A perusal 

 of the following description shows this giant midge to be a strikingly marked 

 form entirely different from anything heretofore brought to notice. 



Female. Length 8 mm. Antennae extending to the fourth abdominal 

 segment, rather thickly haired, mostly light brown, the stems whitish transparent, 

 and probably 16 segments, the first and second segments short, stout, dark brown, 

 the fifth with a stem nearly equal to the length of the basal enlargement, which 

 latter has a length about 2^ times its diameter and is irregularly clothed with 

 setae, there being sub-basally and sub-apically a few very long, dark setae, the 

 interspaces rather thickly filled with shorter, light setae; Palpi jiresumably quad- 

 riarticulate, indistinct in the mount ; mesonotum a dull reddish brown ; scutellum 

 and postscutellum concolorous ; the abdomen sparsely haired, dark brown ; the 

 ovipositor dark reddish orange; wings sub-hyahne, the membrane rather thickly 

 clothed with fuscous hairs, sub-costa uniting with the anterior margin at the 

 distal third, the third vein joining the margin well beyond the a])ex of the wing 

 and united to sub-costa near the basal half by a distinct cross vein, the fifth 

 simple and joining the posterior margin a little before the basal half; halteres 

 dark brown; coxae and legs dark brown except the basal half of tibiae and the 

 distal four tarsal segments, which latter are snow white and suggest the orna- 

 mentation of Bittacomorpha clavipes Fabr; claws moderately long, stout, black, 

 apparently simple; the pulvilli rudimentary; ovipositor short, the lobes narrowly 

 oval, with a lengtli al)out three times the width and thickly setose. 



Type A. 3196, N. Y. State Museum. 



Mailed June Stii, P)21. 



