336 



flavescentihus. Long, cor p. 3 Un. 2f. In domibus mense Augusto et 

 Septemhre longe frequentissima, parieles fenestrasque fimo aspergens, ad cibas 

 concurrens poculaque prcegustans. 



Head before ■with a very pale yellow or whitish silky lustre, antenna! 

 fovea and antennas black; front slightly convex, but not prominent; eyes 

 reddish brown; in the male more approximated than in the female, and 

 with a linear black spot interposed; female with the spot oval. Thorax 

 fuscous, Avith remote, black, curved bristles; above with five cinereous 

 lines. Scutel cinereous, blackish at the sides, and with remote black 

 bristles. Wings diaphanous, pale testaceous at base; nervures fuscous, 

 Winglets and poisers white. Legs black, and with black hairs. Abdomen, 

 in the male, honey yellow, diaphanous at base, blackish, and with long 

 black bristles at tip; a dorsal black line and the segments slightly edged 

 Avith black. Abdomen of the female cinereous, with a silky lustre, sides at 

 the base honey yellow ; a dorsal line and an interrupted one on each side, 

 black. 



This is our most common house fly, which must closely resemble the 31. 

 domestica of Europe. The front in the living insect cannot be said to be 

 golden, the yellowish tinge is hardly perceptible. 



Musca familiaris Harr. mss. 



M.fronle prominulo, fulvo ; ihorace scutelloque fulvo tomentosis; ahdomine 

 cinereo micante, tessellis marginibusque segmentorum nigro-variantibus. Tem- 

 pore vernali et cestivo in parietibus hospitatur. 



Head somewhat prominent in front, of a dirty yellow or tawnj'' color 

 with a silky lustre, and distinct black bristles; eyes in tlie male connivent 

 above, in the female distant, with an interposed, oblong, black sjiot, furcate 

 above and below, antenn£e blackish, with the articulations piceous or fer- 

 ruginous. Thorax black, covered with a close, dirty yellow or fulvous, 

 coarse pubescence, with remote, curved, black bi-istles. Wings at the 

 articulations and extreme base, ferruginous. Winglets and poisers white. 

 Legs rusty black, with bhick hairs. Abdomen with distant, curved, black 

 bristles, in both sexes cinereous, with a silky lustre, each segment with two 

 quadrate black spots, and widely edged with black, varying in situation and 

 degree, according to the incidence of light. 



This species, not uncommon in houses in summer, nearly disappears when 

 the more abundant M. harpyia prevails. It resembles M. rudis Fabr., but 

 is larger than the only specimen which I have seen, and has the thorax 

 much more densely clothed with fulvous hairs. From M. harpjjia it differs 

 in its superior size, in having the eyes contiguous in the male, im the prom- 

 inence of the front, in the hairiness of the thorax, etc. 



