ART. 10 walker's north AMERICAN TACHINIDAE ALDRICH 3 



it to Phoj^antha, with several supposed synonyms. He mentioned 12 

 localities and probably included at least 25 specimens, including a 

 type of Hijaloinyia aldrichi Townsend. His series has been rear- 

 ranged and mixed with other material in the attempt to make out 

 the various forms included as synonyms and some specimens have 

 apparently been used in exchange. Townsend ^ separated one speci- 

 men as type of Phoranthella mo^^lsoni, new genus and species, but it 

 remains totally undescribed. Robertson ^ expressed the view that 

 Coquillett included at least three species and that occidentis can not 

 be recognized from the description. Without publishing on the mat- 

 ter, Townsend later separated a female unlike Coquillett's from Los 

 Angeles County, Calif., and labeled it as occidentis "typical." 



It may be assumed that Coquillett misidentified occidentis^ as his 

 specimens do not agree with Walker's statement, "Abdomen hoary, 

 black toward the base and with two black bands," especially as to 

 the black bands. If we leave the true occidentis aside until the type 

 is seen, the question of the identity of Coquillett's species remains for 

 consideration. He undoubtedly included aldrichi, and this name is 

 the valid one for most of his specimens; some of his other synonyms 

 may be distinct species. The genus should be Hyalomyla, as first 

 given by Townsend. H. aldrichi is a widespread species, with the first 

 abdominal segment black, all the following with glistening white 

 l^ollen and with indications of a median black stripe. 



Trichopoda histrio Walker, List, p. 697. No locality, but the 

 type must have been from tropical America; I did not see it. Coquil- 

 lett (p. 48) made it a synonym of plumipes Fabricius. Townsend 

 published notes on the group in Taxonomy of the Muscoidean Flies,*' 

 in which he seemed to show histrio as a distinct form in his genus 

 Polistomyia; but in his later work on the National Museum collection 

 he apparently gave this up, as he left no specimens labeled with 

 Walker's name. As to the status of Polistomyia, it is obvious from 

 the sj)ecimens labeled by Townsend that the apical cell has a very 

 short i^etiole and the hind tibiae are strongly ciliate, in the type spe- 

 cies trifasciata Loew; other characters are very slight, hence I do 

 not accept the genus, and should call the species Trichiopoda 

 plumipes Fabricius, as Coquillett did, merely amending the spelling 

 of the genus to agree with its original form. 



Phyto clesides Walker, List, p. 757. Coquillett (p. 51) identi- 

 fied this as a species that he had described two years before ^ as Phyto 

 setosa. Austen^ stated that Walker's type belongs to the genus 

 Phorichaeta Rondani, a genus that has been regarded by later Euro- 



* Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 28, p. 23, 1915. 

 scan. Ent., vol. 33, p. 285, 1901. 

 « Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 51, p. 134, 1908. 

 ^Jonrn. New York Ent. Soc, vol. 3, p. 99, 1895. 

 8 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 19, p. 33G, 1897. 



