NO. 1935. MV8C0ID FLIES FROM SOUTH AMERICA— T0WN8EXD. 311 



margin, the latter cut off and not produced. Antennae nearly reach- 

 ing oral margin, second joint short; arista enlarged at base, with 

 hardly discernible microscopic pubescence, the basal joints indistinct. 

 Proboscis short and fleshy; palpi normal, elongate and rather slender. 



Two sternopleural and two postsutural bristles, Scutellum with 

 one strong basal lateral bristle, a short weak marginal bristle next to 

 it, and a long divergent apical pair; discal small pair atrophied or 

 barely distinct. Both sexes with median marginal pair of bristles 

 of first abdominal segment atrophied but usually distinguishable, 

 second segment with median marginal pair, third with marginal row 

 of about eight stronger ones, anal segment with marginal row of same 

 number of weaker ones. Legs not elongate, with very few bristles. 

 Claws and pulvilli of male but little longer than those of female, which 

 are themselves slightly elongate. Apical cell ending just before 

 extreme wingtip, narrowly open, sometimes almost closed. Fourth 

 vein gently rounded at bend, its apical section being nearly parallel 

 with inner wing-margin. Hind crossvein almost in middle between 

 bend of fourth vein and small crossvein, and almost at right angle to 

 fourth vein, nearly straight. 



Reproductive habit, larviposition of slightly colored maggots prob- 

 ably near host. 



Type-species. — Ophirion mirabile Townsend. 



OPHIRION MIRABILE Townsend. 



Ophirion mirabile Townsend, Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer., vol. 4, 1911, pp. 134 and 



146. 

 Ophirion, ep. Townsend, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., vol. 13, 1911, p. 161.— TD 3980. 



Length of body, 4.75 to 5.5 mm.; of wing, 4.5 to 5.5 mm. Four 

 females and three males, Piura, Peru, November 4, 1910, May 13, 

 1911, on bark of mesquite trunks and on window screens of house 

 surrounded by these trees. 



Pale brownish-yellow, thinly dusted with silvery pollen. Para- 

 front als faintly golden in both sexes, more distinctly so in male. 

 Antennae and palpi pale brownish-yellow, frontalia brownish. 

 Mesoscutum of a darker ground color than rest of body, with same 

 shade of pollen as parafrontals; a median pair of linear vittse that 

 become obsolescent posteriorly, and a heavier lateral vitta that is 

 interrupted at suture. Scutellum, abdomen, femora, and tibiae very 

 pale brownish-yellow, the first two silvery dusted, tarsi dusky. 

 Wings faintly infuscated on costal half, tegulae whitish. 



Type.— C&t. No. 15149, U.S.N.M. Female, November 4, 1910; TD 

 3980,/. r. s., m., cpli. sTc. 



