THE CANADIAN KNTOMOLOGIST, 123 



I. Microdo?!. viridis, Townsend, Dipt. Baja, Califotnia, in Proc. Cal. Acad. 



Sci. , Series 2, Vol. III., \). (y\o (.•Vpril 8, 1895). 



I have received from Prof.. Aldrich a single si)ecimen of this charac- 

 teristic species. 



This specimen bears the label " Knoxville, Tenn., 2nd July, '91." In 

 reply to a letter in which I expressed some doubt as to the correctness of 

 this label, Prof. Aldrich has assured me that the specimen was collected 

 by Mr. H. E. Summers in Tennessee and that he has no doubt but that 

 the label is authentic and perfectly correct. Tlie specmien on which IMr. 

 Townsend founded the species was from San Jose del Cabo Baja, Cali- 

 fornia. 



The remoteness of this locality from that of the type was a matter 

 of no little surprise to me and has caused me to make an unusually dili- 

 gent search of the literature to ascertain whether Mr. Townsend's species 

 might not be the same as some previously described more widely distrib- 

 uted one. I have found, however, that M. viridis is entirely unique among 

 the species of Microdon, although it approaches J/, devius, Linn., of 

 Europe. 



I found recently in the collection of the Kansas State University 

 another specimen of this species which I have ascertained was taken by 

 Mr. Chas. Robertson at Orlando, Florida, .Vlarch 16th, 1887. 



2. Alicrodon megalogaster, Snow, Kansas Uni. Quart. Vol. I, No. i, p. 34. 

 Plate vii.. Fig. i (July, 1892). 



Microdon bombiformis, Townsend, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, Vol. 

 XXII., p. y^ (March, 1895). 



I have compared the types of these two descriptions in the collection 

 of the Kansas University ; there is not the least doubt but that they are 

 the same. The type of boinbiforinis is a female and that of megalogaster 

 is a male of the same species. There is only a difference in size between 

 these two specimens. Townsend states in regard to his species, " I can 

 hardly identify this with megalogaster, Snow, from the differences in the 

 wings." The wings in both specimens are fusco-hyaline, but in the female 

 (bombi/orjuis) they are perceptibly darker along all of the veins, precisely, 

 however, as might be expected in that sex. 



The locality of the specimen described as J/, bo nib if or mis is Dixie 

 Landing, Va., and that of the specimen described as M. megalogaster, 

 which Snow omitted to state, is Illinois, 



