^t Canailinij mutoinolajbt. 



Vol. XXIX. LONDON, JUNE, 1897. No. 6. 



CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF NORTH 

 AMERICAN SYRPHID^.— II. 



BY \V. D. HUNTER, IMSTRUCTOR IN ENTOMOLOGY, UNIVERSITY 



OF NEBRASKA. 



Plate V. 



An interesting part of this paper will be found to deal with some 

 material from Alaska. During the summer of 1896 Prof. L. L. Dych^, 

 of the University of Kansas, the well-known taxidermist, made an 

 expedition to Cook's Inlet, Alaska, and from there inland. A number of 

 species of Syrphidpe were taken simply as a side issue, the expedition not 

 being an entomological one at all. Unfortunately, during the long 

 journey back many of these specimens were damaged beyond all hope of 

 recognition. The material that came through, however, without damage, 

 although consisting of only thirteen species, makes quite a contribution 

 to the knowledge of the Dipterous fauna of that interesting region. 

 Although some of the orders of insects, notably the Coleoptera, have 

 been cjuite assiduously collected in Alaska, and extensive reports written 

 upon them, in the Syrphidie, as is the case in all of the families of Diptera, 

 no collections of importance have been made. The whole of the 

 literature of Dipterology contains the record of only seven species as 

 occurring in Alaska. These are mostly from Loew's Centuries as follows : 



Chrysotoxiim derivatuni, Walker, List, iii., 542 (Yukon River). 



PlatycJiirus pelatus, Meigen, Syst. Bschr., iii., 334 (Syrphus). Sitka, 

 Loew. 



The authority for this entry is Osten Sacken, Cat. 1872, 122, "Sitka 

 according to Loew." I do not know where this record was made, nor 

 indeed if it was ever made outside of letters. 



Sphegiiia in/uscuta, Loew, Centuries iii., 23 (Sitka, Sahlberg). 



Baccha obscuricornis^ T^oew, Centuries iii., 117 (Sitka, Sahlberg). 



Sericomyia chalcopyga, Loew, Cent, iii., 20 (Sitka, Sahlberg). 



