THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 325 



A NEW MESEMBRINE FLY. 



BY FREDERICK KNAB, 

 Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



The closest allies of the fly here described generally have been 

 included in the genus Mesembrina. In 1908 Townsend divided 

 the old genus, dismembering it into Mesembrina, Metamesembrina 

 and Eumesembrina, with the following species as respective types: 

 M. mystacea L., M. meridiana L., M. latreillei Rob.-Desv. (Smiths. 

 Misc. Colls., vol. 51, p. 124). In 1911 Schnabl and Dziedzicki, 

 without knowing Townsend's work, separated M. mystacea and M. 

 meridiana generically, proposing for the latter the generic name 

 Neomesembrina (Die Anthomyiden. Nova Acta, Kais.-Leop.-Car. 

 Deutsch. Akad. d. Naturf., vol. 95, p. 226). M. meridiana having 

 been already designated as the type of Mesembrina by Westwood 

 in 1840, Metamesembrina Towns, and Neomesembrina Schnabl and 

 Dziedz. fall as synonyms. Townsend, having discovered the error 

 in nomenclature, in 1912 proposed the generic name Hypodermodes 

 with M. mystacea as the type (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., vol. 14, p. 

 46). The following .new species is congeneric and closely related 

 with Hypodermodes mystacea (L.) of Europe, and apparently still 

 nearer the Asiatic H. decipiens of Loew (Beschr. europ. Dipt., 

 vol. 2, p. 239; 1871). 



Hypodermodes solitaria, new species. 



Female. — Head black, the frons about one-third the width of 

 the head; parafacials yellowish-silvery pruinose. Antenna black 

 at base, the second joint ferruginous, the third deep brown, red- 

 dish at base; thickened portion of arista ferruginous. Palpi 

 ferruginous yellow, with numerous short black bristles and a few 

 long ones interspersed. 



Mesonotum and scutellum clothed entirely with dull reddish 

 yellow pile, the discal macrocha?tae also yellowish, the peripheral 

 ones black. Pleurae black, the vestiture black, one specimen with 

 some yellowish hairs below wing-base. Sternopleural bristles: 

 1 - 0.1.' 



Abdomen black, the proximal portion covered with short black 

 pile, the last two segments above and beneath with long reddish 



September, 1014 



