380 CHARLES T. BRUES. 



fourth vein curved at base and straight at apex, meeting the margin just before 

 the apex of the wing ; seventh vein distinct, reaching to the border of the wing. 

 Abdomen dull black, not bristly; hypopygium reflexed narrowly at the base, 

 and globular apically, finely hairy below. Legs and halteres black, the femora 

 tinged with piceous. 



Described from a single male specimen, collected at Julietta, 

 Idaho, May 3, 1901 (Aldrich). 



Conicera atra Meig. (Plate ix, figs. 55, 56.) 

 1830. Conicera atra Meigen, Syst. Besehr., vi, 226, 1. PI. lxiii, fig. 13. 

 1830. Conicera sp. ?) Webster, Insect Life, 2, 356. 

 1901. Becker, Monog. Phoridse, p. 81. 



Dull black, the palpi and legs often brownish ; dorsum of thorax slightly gray- 

 ish and shortly black hairy, with two dorsocentral and two scutellar bristles; 

 tip of male antenna reaching the vertex, the third joint being about two and 

 one-half times as long as its greatest width. Palpi with rather weak bristles. 

 Fore tibite with one bristle below the knee, middle tibiae with a pair near the 

 base and a third just before the apex, which bears a long spur. Hind tibiae with 

 a pair of bristles near the base and a third one near the middle, apical spur long. 

 Halteres black; wings hyaline, the costal vein rather strongly ciliated, not 

 reaching to the middle of the wing, tip of first vein almost three-fourths the 

 distance from the humeral to the tip of the costal. Third vein considerably 

 arcuate and distant from the costal for most of its course. Fourth vein uni- 

 formly curved, ending as far before the apex of the wing as the fifth vein does 

 behind it. Sixth vein very indistinct at tip, and seventh almost wholly obsolete. 

 Anterior legs usually somewhat yellowish, but this is rather variable. 



The female has the third antenna] joint shaped as in Phora, but with an apical 

 arista ; otherwise it agrees with the male. 



Length 1-1.2 mm. 



Numerous specimens of this common and widely • distributed 

 European species are in the collection, as follows: three males, two 

 females, Washington, D. C. (Coquillett) ; two males, Horse Neck 

 Beach, Mass. (Hough); two males, Delaware Water Gap, N. J. 

 July 8 (Johnson) ; one female, Newark, N. J., June 14 (Johnson) ; 

 one male, Battle Creek, Mich. ; two females, Canada (Coquillett); 

 one female, Sullivan Co., N. Y. (Brues). 



The North American specimens agree almost perfectly with 

 Becker's description of European ones except that the legs are 

 slightly darker and there is much less variation in the size, — only 

 1-1.2 mm. instead of 1-2 mm., as given by Becker. 



Conicera atra, var. neotropiea, var. nov. 



There is one male in the collection, from Grenada, W. I., which 

 ran scarcely represent a different species, but forms a well marked 

 variety. The wings are decidedly brownish and not pure hyaline, 



