AMERICAN DIPTERA. 181 



Ablautus mimus. 



Ablautus mimus Osten Sacken, West. Dipt., 290, 1877. 



C? 9- — Length 7-8 mm. — General coloring brownish-gray pruinose; 

 abdomen with three rows of black spots; bristles on under side of the 

 basal segments of antennae, the thoracic dorsum and scutellum, brown- 

 ish-yellow; legs black, densely beset with long recumbent white hair 

 and long white erect bristles. 



General coloring brownish-gray pruinose, the occiput densely whitish 

 pruinose; mystax white with a few black hairs over the oral margin; 

 occiput with white pile. Antennae black. Thorax grayish pruinose, 

 with the usual three darker stripes on the dorsum; bristles on the 

 underside of the basal segments of antennae, dorsum and scutellum, all 

 brownish-yellow. Halteres honey-yellow, trichostical pile white. Ab- 

 domen grayish pruinose, with a series of rounded blackish spots along 

 the middle of the abdomen, one at the base of each segment; larger 

 black spots on the anterior corners of each of the same segments form 

 two lateral series; the seventh and eighth segment in the male polished 

 black, with white pile; the seventh segment in the female polished 

 black. Legs black, densely beset with rather long, recumbent white 

 hairs, and long, white erect bristles; claws black. The last two seg- 

 ments of the fore tarsi of the male appear incrassate, because they are 

 densely beset with black and yellow recumbent and closely packed 

 short bristles, forming a kind of a brush, the end of which reaches 

 considerably beyond the claws; the under side of this brush is black, 

 on its upper side it is mixed of black and yellow; the ends of the first 

 three segments of the front tarsi are armed with strong bristles or 

 spines, which are black, with a yellowish root; a couple of such spines 

 in the middle of the first segment. In the female the front tarsi are 

 simple, and all the spines upon them are white, like all the other spines 

 on the legs. Wings very hyaline; veins black. 



Type. — M. C. Z. One male and two females. 



Habitat. — Crafton, near San Bernardino, Southern Cali- 

 fornia, in March. (Osten Sacken); Ariz. (National Museum). 



Osten Sacken states that he captured this species on sandy 

 soil in company with Lestomyia sabidonum, which it seems to 

 mimic, as its body is almost exactly of the same color. 



Ablautus rubens. 



Ablautus rubens Coquillett, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., VI, 178, 



1904 (PI. XII, fig. 4). 



" 9- — Length 6 mm. — Reddish-yellow, the hair and bristles whitish, 



several on the tarsi black, most numerous on the hind ones; head, 



thorax and scutellum opaque, yellowish-gray pruinose, the pleurae, 



except the anterior portion, the under side of the scutellum, and middle 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, XXXV. MAY, 1909. 



