Americana 



VOL II. 



BROOKLYN, SEPTEMBER, 1886. 



NO. 6. 



On two interesting new genera of Leptidae. 



By S. W. WlLLISTON. 



Three summers ago, while collecting in the White Mountains, 1 

 found in the shady woods a specimen which I at the time took to be a 

 Triptotricha. Upon a more careful examination, however, I was surpris- 

 ed to find only four posterior cells in the wing, and the last posterior 

 vein arising from the discal cell, a variation from the most essential char- 

 acteristics of the family Leptidae, a note of which, so remarkable did the 

 anomaly appear to me, I sent to the Stettiner entomologische Zeitun"-. 

 Afterwards, Baron Osten Sacken, during his visit to the United States the 

 past year, in looking over my collection was struck with the relationship 

 of the specimen with Stygia elongata Say, and, although upon examina- 

 tion the species was found to be evidently a different one, there could be 

 no doubt of the congenerousness of the two. Stygia elongata has been 

 an enigmatical species of doutful affinities since its description sixty years 

 ago by Say, who placed it under the Bombylidae. Afterwards, Wiede- 

 mann, who presumably examined Say's type, described it as Anthrax e- 

 longata, and yet again in the same work, as Lomatia elongata, with the 

 remark that the "Art gehort ohne Zweifel zu einer ganz andern Gattung'*, 

 basing his opinion upon the differences in the proboscis, antenna?, and 

 neuration. Baron Osten Sacken in his catalogue retained it anion" the 

 Bombylidae as Lomatia elongata with the additional observation (note 

 x 55. P- 2 37)'- "Stygia elongata Say, Lomatia elongata Wied., is not a 

 Lomatia, as Wiedemann himself observes, but it is difficult to say what 

 it is. It has the antennae of a Leptid, but nevertheless only four posterior 

 cells. I saw the typical specimen in Vienna and it seemed to agree with 



