10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 123 



Hermetia conjuncta James, new species 



Figures 7, 10 



This species, particularly in the female, bears a close superficial 

 resemblance to a rather small H. illucens (L.); it is distinctly more 

 elongated than other members of the H. aurata group. The male 

 genitalia are of the H. chrysopila type but differ from those of other 

 known members of the group in that the guards of the aedeagus are 

 fused and do not terminate in distinct setulae. A somewhat disturbing 

 peculiarity in this species is the variability in the color of the pile, 

 but this seems to indicate merely a certain amount of genetic insta- 

 bility within the species. 



Male: Head black; yellow areas more reduced than in other 

 members of the group and limited to the small frontal callus, a rounded 

 spot on each side of the ocellar triangle, and a large transverse spot, 

 behind the ocellar triangle and not reaching the eye, on the posterior 

 part of the vertex and upper part of the occiput; face entirely black 

 or with its prominence yellowish medially. Ante-ocellar tubercle 

 glabrous, as large but not as prominent as in other members of the 

 group; supra-antennal callus distinct, tubercle-like; area above 

 frontal callus rugulose but without distinct carinulae. Pile of head 

 yellow to whitish, tending to deeper yellow on lower face and on 

 vertex, and in those areas with a variable, sometimes a considerable, 

 amount, of black to blackish pile intermixed; eyes with long, dense, 

 white to pale yellow pile. Antennae black, the second segment 

 brownish to reddish yellow. Proboscis black. Thorax black, humeri, 

 postalar callus, and sometimes extreme apical margin of scutellum 

 brown; mesonotal pile uniformly reddish brown, no differentiated 

 presutural vitta; a dense area of yellowish and whitish pile at apex 

 of scutellum. Basal third of hind tibia yellow, femora and tibiae 

 otherwise black except narrowly and indefinitely at knees. Tarsi 

 pale yellow to clear yellow, becoming somewhat darker apically. 

 Wing (fig. 10) gray but with a yellow area extending through second 

 basal cell, across and including the entire discal cell, to the wing 

 margin from stigma to vein R 4 ; area bare of micro trichia more exten- 

 sive than usual for the group, vein Cu 2 being broadly bordered on both 

 sides through much of the fifth posterior and first anal cells by the 

 microtrichia-free area. Halteres orange, base of stalk more brownish. 

 Abdomen black at base, at least the fifth and usually the fourth 

 and part of the third segment, sometimes more, becoming reddish 

 brown, more extensively so ventrally than dorsally; second segment 

 translucent white on most of the sternum and on two large rectangular 

 spots on the tergum, which are either separated from each other by a 

 narrow black line or totally fused. Pile whitish at base and laterally 



