344 ERNEST A. BACK. 



SAROPOGON. 



Sarapogon Loew, Linnasa Ent., 439, 1847. 

 Saropogon Loew, Bemerk. uber Asil., 5, 1851. 

 Saropogon Schiner, Fauna Austr., I, 125, 1862. 

 Saropogon Schiner, Verb. Zool.-Bot. Ges., XVI, 053, 1866. 



Comparatively naked species. Head obviously broader 

 than high; face bare, in profile slightly convex above, rather 

 concave below, oral margin most prominent and bearing a 

 row of stout bristles forming the mystax ; face and front quite 

 broad, the face scarcely narrowed above, the front hardly de- 

 pressed, ocellar tubercle large. Antennas well separated, seg- 

 ments 1 and 2 cylindrical, subequal, clothed with stiff hair, 

 segment 3 longer than the first two taken together and usually 

 with some short stiff hair above, and bearing a short thickened 

 style of varying structure. Thorax moderately arched, dor- 

 sum with short stiff hair, and on the sides, posterior callosities, 

 and before the scutellum usually with well-developed bristles ; 

 the scutellum, in all the following species except abbreviatus, 

 with two or four well-developed bristles. Abdomen long, 

 moderately robust, somewhat flattened in the female, more 

 cylindrical in the male. Legs stout, hind femora not thickened, 

 the front tibiae with a prominent claw-like spur. First pos- 

 terior cell of wing wide open, closed, or closed and petiolate; 

 the fourth posterior open, or closed, but never, where closed, 

 with a long peduncle. 



Dr. Williston in Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, XII, p. 290, says, in 

 speaking oi Saropogon and Deromyia, that "there is absolutely 

 no discovered character that will separate these genera. Still 

 the multitude of species of Deromyia renders the retention of 

 Saropogon imperative." This is true; the difference between 

 the genera can be felt better than described. The species of 

 Saropogon as a whole, have a proportionately much stouter 

 abdomen; luteus is somewhat of an exception, being in this 

 respect more like the Deromyia type. While the foufth pos- 

 terior cell of Saropogon species is variable, that of Deromyia 

 species is not, and in the latter is usually closed relatively 

 quite distant from the margin, while in the former it is more 

 often open, but when closed, with only a slight peduncle. 



