28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.78 



bristles, the black costal stripe is not uniformly colored, being yellow- 

 ish in the costal cell, and in the submarginal cell except at extreme 

 apex, so that the vitta may be said to be attenuated before apex of 

 the auxiliary vein and beyond that of the first vein ; the outer cross 

 vein is at little more than its own length from the inner; and the 

 anteroventral setulae on central portion of the hind tibiae are rather 

 stronger. The specimens of both species are not in the best of con- 

 dition, but it appears to me that the third antennal segment in the 

 present species is shorter than in completa^ and the arista is a little 

 more noticeably haired. 



The two examples before me have the posterior notopleural bristle 

 duplicated, both being quite strong and short. 



Length, 7 mm. 



Type and one paratype. — Cairns, N. Queensland, 1907, same col- 

 lection as completa. 



Family HELOMYZIDAE 



My interpretation of this family is wider than that of Dr. F. 

 Hendel in his most recent treatment of the Palearctic Diptera,- in- 

 cluding as it does the group he designates as Trichoscelidae, ranking 

 the latter as a separate family, I do not care to accept the latter 

 as even a subfamily, as with all available material it appears to me 

 that the two merge into each other, no one character being of in- 

 variable dependability in their separation. I have just finished a 

 revision of a portion of the family as represented in New Zealand 

 which corresponds quite closely with the genus now dealt with below, 

 and in a previous paper with A. L. Tonnoir described several genera 

 and subgenera which have a very similar appearance but are rather 

 clearly connecting links between the present group and the larger 

 and more northern representatives generally accepted as Helo- 

 myzidae.^ Usually the genus Trixoscelis Rondani has been con- 

 sidered as distinct from Diastata Meigen, but they have the same 

 genotype, ohscurella Fallen, and are thus identical. I have examined 

 the genotype and find that in but two characters of any importance 

 does it differ from the genotype of Spilochroa Williston. Of these 

 but one is structural, the much higher cheek, while the other consists 

 of the maculated wings, ohscurella and its closest allies having the 

 wings either hyaline or partly clouded. It appears worthy of note 

 that Hendel has described a characteristic Spilochroa under the 

 generic name Trichoscelis, as shown in the following pages. I con- 

 fine the present paper to a treatment of those species with dark 

 spotted wings and narrow cheeks as shown in the following specific 

 key. 



* Die Tierwelt Deutschlands, etc., part 2, Diptera, General Treatment, 1928. 

 sRec. Cant. Mus., vol. 3, p. 88 (1927). 



