— 1 5 2 — 



life, the peculiarity, so far as i I is sexual, is a male character; but it is 



in this family where we find more frequently than in any other, definite 

 female sexual structural peculiarities— 1 mean the flattened front tarsi; 

 similai and striking female characters I have observed in several 

 American Syrphidce, but I can recall few other instances in the order. 

 The structure ol the antennas in the present case, as well as I can 

 . is as follows: The first joint is short ; the second stout, and 

 about twice as long as the first, its width at the tip nearly as great as the 

 length. The third consists essentially of two \vr\ slender processes 01 

 branches, which give off twelve pairs of slender rods symmetrically. The 

 upper branch, the shorter, extends forward parallel with the upper border 

 of the second joint ; the other spring's at a right angle from the extreme 

 base, and descends to the oral margin, curved throughout, and forming 

 the convex hypothenuse of the right-angled triangle, the other two sides 

 of which are straight. From the upper branch there arise four, from the 

 lower eight pairs of rods, which are slender, horizontal and parallel, sep- 

 arated by about their own width from the adjoining ones on each side, 

 and gently curved outward to enclose the deep bilaterally symmetrical 

 cavity. They all terminate in a vertical plane, and form, in front view, 

 an elongate elliptical figure lour or five times as long as wide. The rods 

 be< oine successively shorter, the two last pairs being very short, and from 

 between the branches of the upper terminal pair arises fhe stout, three- 

 jointed arista. -- The whole structure might be compared with the ribs 

 and keel of a very narrow deep ship. 



In the female the structure is very different, more like that of the 

 ordinary antenna of a Jurinia, except that there is a deep fissure from the 

 anterior inferior margin, running parallel with the upper margin, two- 

 thirds or more of the way to the base and dividing the joint into two un- 

 symmetrical parts. The tendency toward the remarkable fissural struct- 

 ure of the male is yet further shown on one side only d~ one of the two 

 females, where the upper portion has yet another, more shallow, emarg- 

 ination, forming two points to the division, and in the other female where 

 the lower part has two very shallow emarginations of its border. The 

 second joint is more slender than in the male, scarcely half the length ol 

 the third. The other generic characters are as follows : 



Talarocera, gen. nov. Eyes small, bare. Front broad in both sexes; in the 

 male with a single row of bristles, descending below the insertion ol the antennae ; in 

 ile with two additional bristlas without, directed anteriorly. Fossulate portion 

 of tin' fai e broad and shallow, the sides of the en e rather narrow, and wholly \\ ith- 

 out bristle ; epistoma strongly projecting forwards; bristles confined to lowermost 

 portion and oral margin, more on the cheeks ; a single stout one at lower end ol 

 lateral ridges. Palpi projecting beyond the oral margin, broad and flat, spatulate. 



