146 BULLETIN 31, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



clothed with very short black \n\e, a littU^ U)iiger toward the tip. Legs 

 wholly black, the tarsi on the inner side with short reddish pile. Wings 

 nearly hyaline; a black si)Ot at the tip of the auxiliary vein, beyond 

 "which the stignia is yellowish ; the small cross-vein, the cross-veins at 

 base of discal and third posterior cells, the last section of the fourth 

 vein, and the second vein near its tip with narro"w black clouds; second 

 vein near its tip jjently bent into the submarginal cell, last section of 

 the fourth vein strongly bent inwards. 



Three specimens. New Mexico (G. F. Gaumer), for which I am in- 

 debted to Mr. Eugene L. Keen, of Philadelphia. 



Volucella (Temnocera) megacephala. 



Temnoceramegaccpliala Loew, Ccutur., iv, 57; Oateu Sackeu, Cat. Dipt., 130. 



Habitat. — California (Lw.), Arizona, Mexico! 



9 . Length, 13'"'». Short, broad, luteous. Head very large, sordid 

 luteous; front and face with short black pile; pile of the eyes very- 

 short, whitish. Occiput and cheeks dilutely luteous; face moderately 

 produced, the usual tubercle nearly wanting. Antennae ochraceous, 

 very short, the third joint moderately excised above. Dorsum of tho- 

 rax with two rather obsolete, broadly separated, blackish stripes. Scu- 

 tellum wholly luteous. Pile of the dorsum and the scutellum, except 

 its border, short, black, the border of the latter with pallid, less abun- 

 dant pile, and without bristles. Pleurae above luteons, below black. 

 Abdomen broad, subfuscous, the base of each segment narrowly luteous 

 and clothed with pallid pile. Venter dilutely luteous, pile very short, 

 pallid, a black median interrupted stripe black pilose. Coxae and tro- 

 chanters black ; legs ochraceous luteous, pallidly i)ilose, tip of the tarsi 

 obscurely fuscous. Wings hyaline, apical half of the costa broadly 

 margined Avith cinereous black; the transverse veins clouded with a 

 more saturate black color. 



Translation from the original, compared with the type specimen in 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. 



Three specimens, male and female, apparently of this species, from 

 Arizona and Mexico (J. Aquilera), I have since examined. The pilosity 

 of the eyes is woolly, the pile of the face only in part black. The male 

 eyes are contiguous for a very long distance, the frontal triangle small. 

 The third joint of the antennae is but very slightly excised above, and 

 the absence of bristles on the scutellum makes it seem strange that 

 Loew should have located the species under Temnocera. In the male 

 specimen there is, in addition to the two remote dorsal thoracic black 

 stripes, which might better be called spots, a median one. In only one 

 specimen does Loew's description of the abdomen apply; in the others 

 the second segment is luteous, except the outer posterior parts. The 

 third segment is broadly yellow in front, black behind; the fourth seg- 

 ment broadly yellowish and luteous, except two large, indefinite black 

 spots behind. The species is a large one, more especially characterized 



