134 ^ THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



selves on page 76 of the above-mentioned revision, that Styx may 

 prove to be only a melanic form of plagiata, I have no cause to feel 

 ashamed of my record. It may be as well here to mention that 

 B. & McD. have pronounced Acyphas plagiata Walk, to be Hemero- 

 campa definita Pack, and not leiicostigma A. «&. S., as I at first 

 thought. (Contr. II, No. 5, p. 203, Aug. 1914). 



PLATYPTERYGIDiE. 



683. Eudeilinea herminiata Gn. — Dorothy, July 5th, 1905. 

 One specimen. 



OCCURRENCE OF EUMERUS (SYRPHID^) IN 



CALIFORNIA. 



BY W. M. DAVIDSON, U. S. BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY, WASHINGTON, 



D. C. 



The large Syrphid genus Eiimerus Meigen is well distributed 

 over the lands of the Eastern Hemisphere, occurring from Britain 

 to Australia. In the Americas there appear to be no indigenous 

 species, but the onion fly {Eumerus strigatiis Fallen) has been bred 

 from Iris and Amaryllis bulbs in North America. Felt* records 

 that it was reared in New York State from Iris roots found at 

 Saratoga Springs, N. Y., August, 1911. He also states that it 

 has been recorded from Buffalo, N. Y., Connecticut and Browns- 

 ville, Texas. During the summer of 1914 I was surprised to find 

 an Eumerus on the wing in central California. Ten specimens, of 

 which 8 were males, were secured, the dates and numbers taken 

 being as follows: 1 male at Walnut Creek, Cal., May 25; 1 male at 

 Berkeley, Cal., June 12; 6 males and 2 females at Oakland, Cal., 

 July 26. At Berkeley a few others were observed and at Oak- 

 land many more. At both places the flies occurred in gardens 

 flying close to the ground and. making short darting flights among 

 the vegetation, thereby reminding one of some of the smaller 

 bees. Professor Bezzi of Turin, Italy, to whom I sent a male, 

 pronounced the specimen very similar to the European E. tuber- 

 culatus Rondani, which he states is perhaps only a variety of 



*Felt, New York State Museum, Report of the State Entomologist, 1911; 

 p. 119. 



