iQog] Descriptions of Some New Tachinidae 245 



and Pscudatractocera. The following tabic will serve to distin- 

 guish it from these forms and to point out the relationships of 

 each to the others : 



1. Orbital bristles absent in male, front of male not over one- third head-width, 



second antennal joint elongate, third antennal joint of male only a 

 little over twice as long as second, arista thickened on only its basal 

 one-fourth to one- third, male claws elongate and female claws shorter; 

 facial carina present, obsolete below ; apical cell closed in inargin 

 or very short-petiolate, ending well before wingtip .... Pscudatractocera 

 Orbital bristles in both sexes, front of both sexes never less than about 

 one-half of head-width and often more, second antennal joint never 

 elongate, third antennal joint of male always greatly developed, arista 

 always thickened practically its whole length, claws same in Ijoth sexes 

 and short or but little elongate 2 



2. P^acialia ciliate one-half way up, Irontal bristles descending normally below 



base of antennae, discal abdominal bristles present except in P. meri- 



dionalis, no facial carina 3 



Facialia bare, frontal bristles descending to opposite lower border of eyes, 

 third antennal joint always equilateral, second aristal joint not elon- 

 gate, discal abdominal bristles absent, apical cell ending well before 

 wingtip 4 



3. Fourth vein obsolete apically, third vein ending near wingtip; second aristal 



joint elongate, third antennal joint of male subtriangular, cheeks 



nearly as wide as eye-height Euryceromyia 



Fourth vein entire, apical cell very short petiolate and ending well before 

 wingtip; second aristal joint short, third antennal joint equilateral in 

 both sexes, cheeks not over one-half of eye-height Phasmophaga 



4. No facial carina, apical cell closed in margin Hypertrophocera 



Facial carina present, apical cell petiolate Euthyprosopa 



This study of Phasmophaga and its comparison with the above 

 related genera have demonstrated with considerable certainly 

 that Neotractocera Tow^ns. is but the female of Hypertrophocera 

 Towns. In that case the latter name holds for the genus. 



These genera are evidently allied to Batimhatierui, Thelymorpha, 

 Urophylla, and less so to Brachychaeta. Brauer and Von Ber- 

 genstamm put Urophylla in their group Thryptocera, but it cer- 

 tainly seems more closely allied with Thelymorpha. They also 

 refer Euryceromyia and Hypertrophocera to their group Thryp- 

 tocera, while they refer Neotractocera, Euthyprosopa and Pscuda- 

 tractocera to their group Paramacronychia along with Melano- 

 phrys. That the latter does not belong as referred by them is 

 evident from the fact that dissection of females show^s the genus 

 to have the leaf-larviposition habit, and thus to belong to the 

 Echinomyiine-Hystriciine series. Hypertrophocera especially is 

 so clearly related to Phasmophaga in its anatomy that it seems 

 certain that it has the leaf-ovipositing habit. That Phasmophaga 

 does not belong to the Thryptocera group is clear, since the latter 

 genus, if we may judge from dissections of the closely allied 

 Bigonichaeta, must have the host-larviposition habit. Thus we 



