SYNOPSIS OF NORTH AMERICAN SYRPHID^. 297 



aesez luisant a sa partie superieure; cuisses posterieures simplement 

 garnies en dessous de polls fins, pen rigides; 2« nervure transversals 

 de I'aile tres l^g^reineut oblique et sise an milieu de cellule discoidale.— 

 2 sp6cim. — Bigot, I. c. 



BRACHYPALPUS. 



Brachypalpus Amithaon. 



Milesia Amithaon Walker, List, etc., iii, 567. 

 Habitat— ^ovt\\ Carolina (Walker). 



" $ . Body black, shining; head as broad as the chest, clothed with 

 dark tawny hairs; mouth and feelers black: eyes brassy black; facets 

 on the fore part of the crown rather larger than those elsewhere; chest 

 clothed with dark tawny hairs; abdomen nearly linear, as broad as the 

 chest and much longer; sides clothed alternately .with black and dark 

 tawny hairs; legs black, clothed with black hairs; foot-cushions and 

 claws dark tawny; tips of claws black; hind thighs very thick, toothed 

 beneath; hind shanks curved, with a knob on the inner side; wings 

 dark gray, brown along the fore borders and on the sides of the veins 

 of the disk; wing-ribs and veins black, some of the latter ferruginous 

 toward the base ; poisers ferruginous. Length of the body 7 lines ; of 

 the wings 15 lines." — Walker, 1. c. 



".¥. Amithaon, which I saw in the British museum, looks very much 

 like a Brachypalpus:'— Osten Sacken, Cat. Dipt., 251. The description 

 reads much like B.frontosus, except the "black and dark tawny hairs'' 

 of the abdomen. Is it a Grioprora? 



Brachypalpus Aepalius. 



Xylota Aepalius Walker, List, etc., iii, 557. 

 ? Brachypalpus sorosis Williston, ante, p. 223. 



I neglected to compare Walker's description in describing my species, 

 and only became aware of the apparent identity of his Aepalius in revis- 

 ing the description for insertion here. I believe they are the same, 

 though the description is not very definite of the abdomen and pile of 

 the thorax, and will apply equally well to B. puleher. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE GENERA AND SPECIES DESCRIBED BY MR. 



BIGOT. 



(Annales et Bulletin Soc. Ent. de France, 1883, 84, 85). 



Phalacromyia vicina, Annales, 1883, 86. — Mexico. 

 Phalacromyia melanorhina, Annales, 1883, 86.— Mexico. 



This genus differs from Volucella only in the marginal cell of the wings 

 being open. Mr. Bigot gives a useful table of the known species of this 

 genus and of Volucella. 

 Microdon gracile, Annales, 1883, 320.— Mexico. 



Is not this the same as M. baliopterusf The descriptions read very 

 much alike. 



