THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 99 



Eristalis hirtits, Loew. 



This is a very widely-distributed and common species all over the 

 West. It has been taken at four different localities in Colorado, as well 

 as New Mexico. The collection here contains numerous specimens 

 taken at Custer, South Dakota. 

 Eristalis JIavipes, Walker. 



There are two specimens of this species in the collection of the 

 University. One of them, a male, captured at Lincohi, Nebr., is a 

 typical form ; another, a male, captured near Lake Winnipeg, on the 

 Saskatchewan River, in Canada, by Prof Bruner, in September, is Loew's 

 E. melanostomics, or, as it is now considered, Eristalis flavipes, var. 

 melanostomiis, Loew. 



It is worthy of note that this species is predaceous, quite anomalously 

 among the Syrphidce. The latter of the two specimens just mentioned 

 was captured sucking the substance of a small grasshopper, Chloealtis 

 curtipennis, which it held in its grasp after the manner of many of the 

 Asilidce. 

 Pteroptila cincta, Drury. 



Two males and one female from Jamaica, W. I., have the abdomen 

 and scutellum entirely of a strong reddish colour. The hypopygium 

 is large and shining red. Collected at Portland, Jamaica, by C. W. 

 Johnson, of Philadelphia. 

 Mallota cimbiciformis, Fall. 



There is a specimen in the collection of the LTniversity taken at 

 Milford, Nebr., in June. 



There is another specimen that is very difficult to place. It was 

 taken in War Bonnet Canyon, Sioux County, Nebr. Williston has 

 described a species, M. Sackeni, that differs from cimbiciformis only 

 in having the eyes separated in the male, and the wings marked with a 

 distinct brown spot. There is perhaps also this difference, viz., that in 

 Sackeni the marginal cell is closed in the margin, while in cimbiciformis 

 it is distinctly open. Williston states, in litt., in reply to a letter in which 

 I expressed some doubt as to the right of M. Sackeni to stand as a species : 

 " The question of the ' art recht ' of M. Sackeni is doubtful. I found 

 specimens, however, from Mexico agreeing perfectly with the type speci- 

 men (a note of which I made in the Biol. Central Amer.), and thus con- 

 tinued the name. It is not at all improbable that the species runs into 

 the older species, and that the name can only be used with a varietal 

 meaning." 



