78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE :^^ATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 6S. 



not now in the Museum as follows : Reared from Desmia funeralh 

 Huebner by B, A. Porter at Wallingford, Connecticut; reared from 

 Pyrausta nuhikdf's Huebner by S. C. Vinal at West Medford, Massa- 

 chusetts, and by D, J. Caffrey at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

 Ty/^e.— Female, Cat. No. 6215, U.S.N.M. 



^ PHOROCERA COMSTOCKI Williston. 



Phororera comstocki Williston, in Scudder's Butterflies of New England, 

 vol. 3, 1889, p. 1922. — Coquillett, Eevis. Tachin., 1897, p. 104.— Town- 

 send, Psyche, vol. 6, 1893, p. 467.— Brimley, Ent. News, vol. 33, 1922, 

 p. 25. 



Front of male 0.39 (ayerage of three, 0.38, 0.39, 0.39) and in the 

 female 0.39 (ayerage of three, 0.38, 0.39, 0.41) of the head width; 

 parafrontals silyery, the upper two stout, strongly reclinate frontal 

 bristles «re distinctly outside the row ; in the male there is on6 row. 

 in the female two irregular rows of bristles outside the f rontals ; the 

 median yitta is narrow, less than one-third the width of front ; face 

 silyery pruinose, the sides below the f rontals bare; facial ridges 

 bristly nearly to the base of antennae, bucca one-sixth the eye height ; 

 palpi yellow; antennae as long as face, the first two joints and the 

 basal half of third, reddish; third joint of male fiye times the 

 second, in the female somewhat shorter, arista thickened on the 

 basal third, sometimes nearly half way, the penultimate joint about 

 as long as broad, thorax gray pollinose, marked with four black 

 yittae ; four dorsocentral macrochaetae ; scutellum grayish pollinose, 

 the tij) yellowish, bearing three pairs of strong marginal bristles and 

 a weak pair of apical ones; there are also a weak pair on disk. 

 Sternopleura with three bristles, the lower large. Abdomen black, 

 the last three segments gray on their basal three-fourths and in 

 striking contrast with the black apices, which haye a rather defi- 

 nite line of demarcation; discal and marginal macrochaetae pres- 

 ent on all segments but the first, which bears one pair of mar- 

 ginals. Legs black, mid tibiae with one bristle on the outer front 

 side near the middle, hind tibiae ciliate with one large below middle. 

 Wings hyaline, although the yeins are yery brownish; apical cell 

 narrowly open; the third yein with two bristles at its base. 



Length 8 to 10 mm. 



Redescribed from nine specimens of both sexes in the National 

 Museum, all mi which were reared from Megathymus yuccae Bois- 

 duval and LeConte from South Carolina ; the years of emergence were 

 1874, 1877 and 1892. Two of the lots at least (the later ones) were 

 sent in by Dr. J. H. Mellichamp of Bluffton, S. C. Williston de- 

 scribed two specimens from Riley, mentioning the same host ; so it is 

 practically certain that the types were from one of the two earlier 

 lots aboye mentioned. None of our specimens are labeled as types, 

 but there is one type at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, which has been examined by the junior author. 



