AET. 10 walker's north AMERICAN TACHINIDAE ALDEICH 9 



placed the species by the aid of Major Austen, to whom I sent my 

 manuscript key and some numbered specimens before publishing. 

 The type, which I have since seen, is a female and agrees with the 

 species accepted by me. The supposed euchenor of Townsend ^^ is 

 vulgaris^ neAV species of my revision. 



Ocyptera dosiades Walker, List, p. C95. Coquillett (p. 86) 

 identified this correctly. The type is a female. Major Austen had 

 assisted me in placing it in my revision before I saw the type. I 

 refer it to the genus Cylindromyia^ like the others. 



Tachina ampelus Walker, List, p. 732. Coquillett (p. 88) 

 placed the species as a synonym of Panzeria radicmn Fabricius. 

 Later, however, he separated specimens under the name anifelus^ 

 which agree with the type, as I found by sending some to Major 

 Austen for comparison. I failed to see the type myself, but there 

 are good external characters. Tothill ^^ revised the genus and 

 adopted Ernestia as the proper generic name, redescribing am'pelus 

 (p. 273). It is a very common species. Coquillett apparently iden- 

 tified the species correctly in 1897, but erred in making it a synonym 

 of a European species not now believed to occur in North America. 



Curran ^^ has proposed to refer all our American species of 

 Ernestia. to Merida Robineau-Desvoidy, since ours have inf rasquamal 

 setules absent in the genotj^pe of Ernestia. Two questions arise here : 

 Is the character of generic value, and is it possessed by the genotype 

 of MeHciaf As to the first point, there seem to be no North Ameri- 

 can species of Ernestia without infrasquamal setules, and they are 

 absent in the Euro]3ean E. mdis., type of the genus. They are, how- 

 ever, present in the European E, connivens Zetterstedt and E. pudicus 

 Kondani (specimens determined by Doctor Villeneuve). Curran 

 has proposed as a supplementary character that the posterior forceps 

 of Ernestia are simple (or flat), while in Mericia they are keeled. 

 Our American species have them keeled, and so does connivens^ but 

 pudicus has them simple, thus dividing the two characters. As the 

 infrasquamal setules are sometimes very few as well as minute, I 

 hesitate to give them generic weight in the absence of other char- 

 acters. As to my second question, it appears that MeHcia engonea 

 Robineau-Desvoidy, the sole original species of the genus, can not 

 be identified and is unknown. Stein ^^ says as much. It seems im- 

 possible to assume that it has the characters indicated by Curran, 

 who in response to an inquiry informed me that he did not know the 

 species. Hence I should continue to call Walker's species Ernestia 

 atufelus. 



sojourn. New York Ent. Soc, vol. 5, 176, 1S97. 

 "Can. Ent., vol. 54, pp. 199 ff.. 1921. 

 "^Ent. News, vol. 35, p. 214, 1924. 

 "Arch. f. Naturg., vol. 90, p. 53, 1924. 



