250 S. W, WILLISTON, M, D. 



14. Merosargus festiva n. sp. 



% 9 • — Length 7 mm. Front with two white spots below ; mesonotum black, 

 red on the sides; pleurae yellow; hind tibise brown. Front black, sliinin>r, of 

 equal width in both sexes; above base of antennae lightly swollen, with a small 

 white spot on each side near the orbit. Antennte reddish yellow, inserted on 

 yellow ground ; third joint subquadrate; arista black, moderately swollen and 

 pubescent at base. Face on lower part blackish. Mesonotum black, but little 

 shining, thinly golden pubescent, the sides and front red. Pleurse yellow, more 

 reddish above; metanotum shining black; scutellum black. Abdomen black, 

 with a slight purplish or bluish lustre ; first segment and the small contiguous 

 angles of all the segments yellow ; in the male specimen the hind margin of the 

 second and third segments are rather broadly red in the middle; in the other 

 the third only is narrowly red behind. Legs yellow ; the last three joints of all 

 the tarsi are brownish or brown, and the hind tibiae brown, except the immediate 

 tip ; in the male the hind tibiae strongly bent near the middle. Wings tinged 

 with brownish, the stigma brown ; the second vein arises from near the cross- 

 vein. 



Two specimens, Rio de Janeiro, December. The abdomen in- 

 creases gradually in width to near the tip. 



1.5. Dicranophora asttita u. sp. 



9 %, . — Length 8 mm. Yellow [or light green ?] ; a black spot on the front, 

 and thorax with black spots and stripes; legs reddish and brownish, base of hind 

 tarsi white ; scutellar spines small ; legs simple. Head wholly yellow, except a 

 black spot in the middle of the front, and the middle part of the occiput. Meso- 

 notum black, not shining; two slender yellow stripes, reaching from a dilatation 

 contiguous with the yellow humeri nearly to scutellum, a triangular spot in front 

 of the suture at the side, and another, larger, triangular spot on the post-alar 

 callosities, likewise yellow. Pleurae yellow; two spots below the wings, an ver- 

 tical spot on the mesopleurae and a smaller one in front, black. Pectus with two 

 black spots or stripes between the front and middle coxae, separated by a yellow 

 space; metanotum black, the yellow sides with a tubercular projection. Scutel- 

 lum yellow ; the process nearly vertical (about as long as the body of the scutel- 

 lum it.self), reddish brown ; spines small. Abdomen red, with a yellow margin, 

 the first segment yellow and a small triangular, posterior, median, yellow spot 

 on the second and third segments. Legs without projections in the female ; in 

 the male the middle femora with a four or five toothed process below at the basal 

 third, the middle tibiae straight and simple. Femora reddish yellow ; tarsi red 

 or brownish red ; front tarsi black or dark brown, metatarsi and base of second 

 joint of four posterior tarsi yellowish white, the remaining joints brown. Wings 

 nearly hyaline. 



I have endeavored to identify this species with D. picta Macq. 

 (Hist. Nat. Dipt, i, 255; Dipt. Exot. i, 1, 196, pi. xxiv, tig. 1), but 

 the very unsatisfactory and incomplete description shows such posi- 

 tive differences that the identity seems wholly improbable. I would 

 call attention to the large spot in front of the suture, yellow scutel- 

 lum, red abdomen, middle tibise, white metatarsi, etc., as either dif- 

 ferent from, or wholly unnoticed in his descriptions. 



