Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 116 1965 Number 3504 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF 



THE GENUS SPHAEROCERA LATREILLE 



IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA 



(DIPTERA: SPHAEROCERIDAE) 



By O. W. Richards ' 



The latest revision of the American flies of the genus Sphaerocera 

 Latreille (Malloch, 1925) records only one species of this genus from 

 south of Panama: S. flavicoxa Malloch from Brazil and Costa Rica. 

 Malloch records four species (S. flaviceps Malloch, S. pallipes Malloch, 

 S. bimaculata Williston, and S. varipes Malloch) from Central America 

 and the West Indies. Spuler erected a subgenus Parasphaerocera for 

 S. bimaculata WiUiston that Malloch did not accept because it was 

 founded principaUy on a color character to which two species, S. 

 annulicornis Malloch and S. pallipes Malloch, though allied to the 

 others, were an exception. In a re-examination of the genus, how- 

 ever, I find that there are four distinct groups, each with four or more 

 species, and it is probably convenient to treat each group as a subgenus. 



Key to Subgenera of Sphaerocera Latreille 



1. Scutellum with, at most, one basal marginal tooth on each side. Mesoscutum 

 with rows of minute bristles. Abdominal sternites nearly always more or 

 less reduced, especially in female. Hindtibia with or without apical 

 spur 2 



' Department of Zoology and Applied Entomology, Imperial College, Univer- 

 sity of London, England. 



223 



