188 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Voi. vii. 



by the stigma being wholly brown and from T. albidipcutiis by the 

 coloring of the body. The great difference in the size of the two 

 females is somewhat remarkable, but they are alike in every other 

 particular. 



Icterica seriata Loc7v. — New Jersey, Illinois. 



Ensina humilis Z<^<?7t'. — Jamaica, Kans., S. D., la., Tenn., Miss., 111. 



Tephritis finalis Loe7c>. — Washington (reared from the heads of 

 various Compositce), Ida., S. D., Colo., Cal., N. M. 



Tephritis variabilis, sp. nov. (PI. IV, Fig. 4). 



$ . f Cinerous ; head cinerous ; front brownish except at sides and with two fer- 

 ruginous stripes ; face only slightly hollowed out ; mouth opening large, margins 

 slightly projecting; palpi rather large, whitish; proboscis long, yellow, geniculate; 

 antennse light brown, arista brown ; postorbital bristles and a single pair of the 

 frontal bristles white, others black ; occiput and ocellar triangle black ; thorax, cine- 

 rous with short whitish pile and five ferruginous stripes ; the three median ones 

 broader posteriorly ; also a small ferruginous spot on the humeri ; scutellum with two 

 ferruginous stripes ; the four bristles of the scutellum, as well as those of the thorax, 

 are black and arise from minute black spots ; coxse and femora, except the tips of the 

 latter, cinerous ; tibire and tarsi reddish yellow. Abdomen cinerous with two rather 

 broad ferruginous stripes ; ovipositor wholly shining black, flattened, about as long as 

 the three preceding segments taken together. Wings with a brownish reticulation 

 which is subject to considerable variation ; the stigma and the region between the first 

 and fourth veins usually much darker and containing only small or medium sized 

 drops ; usually four, but often only three, hyaline drops in the marginal cell beyond 

 the tip of the first vein ; over the entire wing there are numerous smaller drops inter- 

 spersed among the larger ones, the latter often confluent in the discal and third pos- 

 terior cells ; the round spot in the stigma is yellowish ; basal portion of some of the 

 veins sometimes with a yellowish tinge ; first only with bristles. Length, ^ 3 to 4 

 mm., 9 3 t'» 5 mm 



Habitat : Washington, Oregon. 



I have befcg"e me a large series of specimens which I believe to be- 

 long to this saVjie species, although the coloring and size of the body 

 and the reticulation of the wings is subject to considerable variation. 

 In some specimens all the parts described above are black and the fer- 

 ruginous stripes hardly or not all visible, but this I take it is due to 

 various stages of desiccation, as I find all stages between these and the 

 well-marked forms. The six specimens from Oregon are much larger 

 and the ovipositon is as long as all the preceding segments taken to- 

 gether ; these may prove to be distinct, but as yet I can find no char- 

 acters constant enough to separate them. 



