102 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTE ON THE PROPOSED NEW GENUS CALOTARSA. 



BY C. H. TYLER TOWNSEND, JAMAICA, W. I. 



On pp. 50-52 of the present volume of this journal, I described the 

 new genus and species Calotarsa ornatipes^ which I then supposed to be 

 an anomalous syrphid. I am now convinced that it is a platypezid. At 

 the time of writing the paper, which was sent in in the fall of 1893, I 

 overlooked the ciliate alulae of the wings, the apical spur of middle tibiae, 

 and the similarity of venation with the Platypezid?e. 



I was led to place it in the Syrphid^e from its extreme resemblance in 

 structure and coloration to that family, the only venational character in 

 which it was actually aberrant being the open apical cell. There is no 

 doubt now, however, of its true position. Credit is due to Mr. Coquillett 

 for suggesting to me iti Hit. its affinities with the genus Flaiypeza, to 

 which he referred it, at the same time raising the question as to whether 

 it could be possible that the peculiar tarsal appendages were of extraneous 

 vegetable origin. I am very certain that the appendages of the hind tarsi 

 are not of extraneous origin. They are exactly similar to each other 

 on both the right and left tarsi. As to the validity of the genus, it is, 

 barring the neuration, quite as unique as before supposed. It is much 

 larger than any known Platypezida?, which range from i}4 to 3 mm., or 

 at most 4 mm., and its colouring is quite different from what is usual in 

 that family. It does not agree in the structure of its hind legs with 

 Fiaiypeza, to which genus it most nearly approaches in venation. In 

 Platypeza the femora, tibiae, and tarsi are evenly widened and thickened 

 in the hind legs. In Calotarsa the hind femora and tibiae are hardly at 

 all widened or thickened, while the tarsi are greatly widened, flattened and 

 winged. It is also removed from Platypeza s. str. in certain neurational 

 and ^ntennal characters, for which see description, and in the prominent 

 hypopygium. It may be looked upon as a gradation between the two 

 closely related families, the Syrphidee and the Platypezidte, clearly located 

 in the latter but with a leaning in the direction of the Pelecocerini tribe of 

 the former. 



Note. — Since writing the above, Prof. J. M. Aldrich has sent me 

 drawings of the tarsi and wing of a similar species of Calotarsa, which he 

 caught on a window at Brookings, So. Dakota. The specimen is a male, 

 and less than 5 mm. long. From the drawings I believe it to be a distinct 

 species. The venation is quite the same, except that the posterior branch 

 of fourth vein does not quite reach the wing margin, which I am inclined 



