274 ' '-Tiili CANADIAN JvNTOMOLOGlST. 



This is the principal Tachinid parasite of Hypliantria cnnca in both 

 eastern and western Canada. 



Ernestia fissicarina sp. n. 



DcscriplioH of male. Head at vil)rissae about as thick as at base of an- 

 tennae. Vibrissae well above the oral margin. Palpi yellow. Kycs hairy. 

 Cheeks (below the eyes) white poUinose on a black ground, suljshining on the 

 lower hairy part, a row of stouter hairs or bristles at the oral margin. Dis- 

 tance from the oral margin to base of eye equal to about one-third the eye 

 height. Sides of face covered with silvery pollen; bare; narrowest width equal 

 to the length of the second anlennal segment. Facial ridges bristly on the 

 lowest fourth. Facial depression silvery pollinose witliout any carina. An- 

 tennae reachiu"- to the lowest fourth of the face, the first two segments vellow- 

 ish, the third black; third segment about one and one-half times as long as 

 the second. Arista thickened on basal three-lit ths, the penultimate segment 

 about twice as long as broad. Width of front at narrowest point equal to 

 about one-half the width of an eye and ecpud to almost twice the length of 

 the second antennal segment; the front silvery pollinose; frontal vitta dull, 

 reddish brown, at narrowest point slightly more than half the width of front 

 at vertex, i.e ; unusualh' l)r()ad. Xo orbital bristles, the proclinate ocellars well- 

 devekjped ; the single row of frontal bristles descending considerably past the 

 insertion of the second antennal segment. 



Thorax subshining. black, covered with gray pollen ; scutellum gray pol- 

 linose on a black ground that becomes rufous toward the apex. Three sterno- 

 ])leitral bristles and four pairs of dorsoeentrals ; sctUellum with only two pairs 

 of marginal macrochaetae and with an apical cruciate pair; the cruciate pair 

 and the pair next to it are directed at right angles to the dorsum. Legs l)lack, 

 tb.e middle tibiae with two or more bristles on the front side near the middle, 

 the hind tibiae without a comb-like row of bristles on the outer side. Wings 

 hyaline; Kj,- (third vein) with a group of two to five hairs l)oth above and 

 below at the junction of lvo+... ; bend of Mj+o destitute of an appendage. Tegulae 

 white. 



Abdomen subshining; silvery pollinose on a black ground. Discal and 

 marginal macrochaetae present on the second, third and fourth abdominal seg- 

 ments. The hind margin of the third abdominal segment somewhat arcuate 

 but not strikinglv so. The lifth tergiun marked off rather indistinctly from the 

 shining sixth and at the lateral part being about one-fourth the length of the 

 lateral part of the fotnlh. The sixth and seventh abdominal segments forming 

 fairly prominent genital segments. 



Genitalia black. Tlu' basal part of the oitter forceps covered by a leaf- 

 like expansion. The basal i)art of the inner forceps ^vith a median keel-like 

 portion that has become si)lit, each half of it having become reduced to a mere 

 knob, as in the case of linicstiii ainpcliis A\'alker. 



The horseshoe-like indenture in the male extends abotit half the dis- 

 'tance to the base of the last sternite. 



Described from a single male collected by j\lr. Iv P. \'an Duzee at 

 Pismo, California on Ai)ril J5th. 



Type in the California Academy of Science, San Francisco. 



