32 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 66 



Not seen by the writer and placed here on account of the statement 

 of Brauer and Bergenstamm. who saw a type specimen. I doubt 

 the generic reference very much as none of the other species have 

 such an elongated third antenna! joint. 



Genus MASICERA Macquart 



Masicera Macqiart, Ins. Dipt, du Nord de la France, 1S34, p. 285. — Coquil- 

 LETT, Revision of the Tachinidae (Tech. Bull. No. 7, Division of Entom- 

 ology), p. 113, 1897. 



MASICERA ARATOR, new species 



Fig. c. 



Male.— Front 0.28 of head width (average of four, 0.28, 0.28, 0.26, 

 0.29) ; parafrontals light golden pollinose; frontal bristles about 

 eight, the two uppermost rather large, reclinate, the lowest reaching 

 the level of the arista and strongly diverging toward the eyes; one 

 pair of verticals: ocellars large; parafacials silvery from the lowest 

 frontals, at narrowest less than half the width of third antennal 

 joint; first two joints of antennae and usually the base of third 

 red, the third broad and long, almost reaching the vibrissae, four or 

 five times the second; arista of moderate length, hardly thickened 

 basally; face concolorous with parafacials, its ridges rather sharp, 

 bare except close to vibrissae ; palpi yellow, ordinary, proboscis short, 

 fleshy ; bucca over one-fourth of eye height. 



Thorax gray pollinose, with very indistinct darker stripes. 

 Acrostichal 3, 3 ; dorsocentral 3, 4 ; humeral 3 ; posthumeral 2 ; presu- 

 tural 2; notopleural 2; supraalar 3; intraalar 3; postalar 2; sterno- 

 pleural 3; pteropleural 0; scutellum with 3 lateral, 1 apical, not 

 upturned, 1 discal. 



Abdomen black with subsilvery basal bands of pollen on segments 

 two to four, which to the naked eye give the impression of being 

 equal to the alternating black bands; under the lens in some angles 

 however the pollen covers most of the segments. First segment with 

 one median marginal pair ; second segment with a discal and a margi- 

 nal pair; third with a discal pair and a marginal row; fourth with 

 two to eight discal and a marginal row. Genital segments rather 

 large, wholly black, with black hair and the second with a pair of 

 bristles directed backward. Inner forceps black, slender, long, 

 deeply divided but not divergent, the tips blunt and slightly bent 

 back. Outer forceps with very peculiar and characteristic shape, 

 long and flat, shining black, beyond the middle suddenly widening 

 backward in a thin, concave margin, the apex sharp and curved a 

 little forward so that the whole apical part suggests a plough share. 

 Fifth sternite large and prominent, black, without special bristles or 

 hairs. 



