300 AMERICAN PSYCHODID.E. 



of trees, and in the overhanging foliage of trees and shrubs, border- 

 ing streams. They are very readily attracted to lights, and the 

 writer finds this to be the most successful way of collecting them. 



The venation of the wings probably represents the most general- 

 ized type in the Diptera, although there is good reason perhaps for 

 placing the Tupulidse at the foot of the scale. The immature stages 

 of the Psychodidse bear several points in common with Tipulidaj and 

 Culicidse ; while the adults of the genus Flehotomus have the blood- 

 sucking habit of the mosquitoes. 



Excepting Psychoda alternata Say, which was first described in 

 1824, and Psychoda degenera Walker,^ the type descriptions of 

 which the writer has not seen, the work of collecting and describing 

 the North American Psychodids was not taken up until the early 

 90's. A number of the European Psychodids were described during 

 the earlier part of the last century ; some of the bibliography cited 

 by Eaton dating back to 1804, while the genus Psychoda dates 

 back to 1796, when it was erected by Latreille.f 



The European Psychodidae have been grouped in two rather dis- 

 tinct divisions ; the subfamily Phlebotominse and the three genera 

 Pericoma, Psychoda and JJiomyia. Four genera are included in the 

 subfamily Phlebotominse, classed in two series. 



The first series includes the' two genera Nemopaljnis Macquai't 

 and Phlebotomus Rondani. The autennse are 16-jointed. The pro- 

 boscis is prolonged and the palpi are elongate, with a flexible termi- 

 nal joint. The radial sector is 3-branched, and the third anal vein 

 in Phlebotomus is wanting or hardly distinguishable from the anal 

 furrow ; while in Nemopalpus it is short and descends to the margin 

 of the wing not far from the anal cross-vein. 



The second series includes the two genera Sycorax and Trichomyia 

 Haliday, in which the antennae are 15-joiuted. The proboscis is 

 not prolonged and the palpi are short, rather stout, with a firm ter- 

 minal joint. The radial sector is reduced to a single forked vein. 

 The third anal vein is short in Sycorax as in Nemopalpus, but in 

 Trichomyia it is long. In Sycorax minute, rounded prominences, 

 hardly distinguishable, replace the ovipositor and subgenital plate ; 

 while in Trichomyia the valves are short, broad, suboval, laminae, 

 and the plate minute, subtriangular and subobtuse. 



* Walker, List, etc., I, 33. — Hudson Bay Territ. 



t Osten Sachen, C. R., Diptera of North America, Smithsonian Inst., 1878. 



