16 AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGY. 



country, in company with Messrs. Maclure, Ord, and T. Peale. 

 A specimen, in the collection of Mr. William W. Wood, was 

 taken near Philadelphia. 

 The upper left figure. 



Xylota proxima. — Specific character. Blackish; tergum 

 about six-spotted ; posterior thighs dilated, with a large rufoug 

 spot on the middle. 



Desc. Head yellowish-silvery; vertex black; antennae ochra- 

 ceous ; thorax blackish, two grey oblong-triangular spots on the 

 anterior margin, connected with a lateral line that extends nearly 

 to the origin of the wings ; poiser and scale whitish ; pleura and 

 pectus silver-grey ; feet ochraceous ; posterior thighs much di- 

 lated, with a very distinct rufous spot each side, and another at 

 base, posterior half of the inferior edge more prominent, spines 

 extending from near the base to the tip ; posterior tibia blackish, 

 rufous in the middle and at base ; tergum black ; first segment 

 with an ochraceous lateral margin and basal edge ; second seg- 

 ment with a large semioval ochraceous spot each side ; third seg- 

 ment with a small transversely semioblong-oval ochi^aceous spot 

 each side at base ; fourth segment with a transverse pale ochra- 

 ceous line each side at base, and posterior margin ; venter yellow- 

 ish-white, blackish at tip. 



Ohs. Very common in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, on 

 flowers. I obtained a variety in Virginia, of which the spots of 

 the tergum are grayish-glaucous. The two sexes are similar in 

 color. 



It is closely allied to Syrphus pipiens of Fabricius ; but the 

 posterior thighs of that species, if we may rely upon Panzer's 

 figure, are widest in the middle, whereas in this species they are 

 widest near the tip, and the rufous band is on the inside as well 

 as on the exterior side. 



The lower left figure. 



[This species is a Syritta, and seems identical with the Euro- 

 pean S. pipiens Linn. — Sacken.] 



Xylota ii^ematodes. — Specific character. Brassy-black ; ab- 

 domen rufous; wings fuliginous. 



M'ilcsia hsematodes, Fabr. Syst. Antl. p. 193. 



Desc. Head black-brown ; hypostoma and front, in a certain 



