American Platypezid^. 



BY W. A. SNOW. 



Paper II.* 



Through the kindness of Professor J. M. Aldrich I have been per- 

 mitted to examine some additional material in this interesting family. 

 The descriptions of three new species follow, one of which was called 

 Platypeza veliitina Lw. in Paper I. 



Platypeza abscondita, n. sp. 



Male. Black, opaque. Head, antennie, palpi and halteres con- 

 colorous. Frontal triangle and face somewhat cinereous, bare; cheeks 

 with black pile. Thorax and scutellum in some lights more fuscous 

 black, the latter with several black marginal bristles. Abdomen 

 velvety black, the incisures very narrowly, and the last segment, ob- 

 scurely cinereous; along the sides with black pile, which is more 

 bristle-like on the last segment. Legs black, the four front tarsi 

 except their tips, brown; first joint of hind tarsi hardly longer than 

 wide, second joint perceptibly wider than long, third joint narrower 

 than the preceding joint and about one and one-half times as long as 

 wide, fourth joint very narrow. Wings hyaline, very slightly ciner- 

 eous; anal cell sub-equal to the short first basal cell; small cross- 

 vein a little more than twice its length from the base of the discal 

 cell, and only once its length distant from the point of divergence of 

 the second and third longitudinal veins; posterior crossvein removed 

 by more than its length from the wing margin; anterior branch of the 

 fourth vein well curved; second posterior cell short, distinctly shorter 

 than the prefurcal section of the fourth vein; the posterior branch of 

 the fourth vein reaches the margin of the wing. 



Length ^.t, mm. 



One specimen, Craig's Mt., Idaho (Prof. Aldrich). 



This species is similar to vclutiiia Lw., anthrax Lw., unicolor n. 

 sp., and/////(?n. sp. ; but differs in the elongate posterior branch of 

 the fourth vein, which reaches the border of the wing. It also dif- 

 fers from each of these species in other alar characters; and from 

 pulla, unicolor and antJirax in its bare face. 



'■ For the first paper see this Quarterly, Vol. Ill, No. 2, p. 143. 



(^05; KAN. UNIV. QUAB., VOL. Ill, NO. 3, JAN., 1S95. 



