SOUTH AMERICAN MUSCIDiE IN THE COLLECTION OF 

 S. W. WILLISTON. 



BY GARY DE N. HOUGH. 

 ( With Plates XLIV, XLV.) 



The following notes and descriptions are the results of the 

 study of material submitted to me for examination by Dr. S. 

 W. Williston, of the University of Kansas. The material was 

 collected by Mr. H. IT. Smith, about fifteen years ago, mostly 

 in Brazil. 



CALLIPHORINiE. 

 Lucilia caesar L. 



Lijcilia parentis Macq. 

 Lucilia j)rmce])s Rood. 



A number of specimens of this cosmopolitan species are con- 

 tained in the collection. Some of them agree with Macquart's 

 description of L. parentis, and others with Kondani's of L. prin- 

 ceps. I can fi-nd, however, no structural differences whatever 

 between these and the typical L. (-[tsar, to which 1 therefore 

 refer them. 



Wiedemann, Macquart, Desvoidy, Rondani, Walker, and 

 Bigot, who have described nearly ail the South American Cal- 

 liphoriuce of our catalogues, rarely mention any structural dif- 

 ferences, but rely wholly on color for separating the species. 

 There can therefore be little doubt that most of the published 

 names are synonyms and will ultimately be dropped. It is 

 very important to recognize the fact that color is of very little 

 importance for distinguishing species in the genera Lucilia, 

 Phormia, and Chrysomyia, because all the species are colored 

 about the same, and in each species the individual variation is 

 great. Metallic purple, green, blue, bronze and copper color 

 are the prevailing tints, and occur in nearly every species, even 

 on different parts (or with varying incidence of light) of the 

 same individual. 



[203J-K.U.Qr.-A ix 3— July, '00. 



