AMERICAN DIPTERA. 343 



The two specimens, a male and a female, collected by Mr. 

 Coquillett are at the National Museum. The Wyoming spec- 

 imen is a female in the possession of Dr. Williston; it is some- 

 what larger than the specimens taken by Mr. Coquillett, and 

 has a crushed and greased thorax; its femora are black in- 

 stead of yellow, and the hind pair are a trifle more bristly. 

 However, the abdomen is the same except that the last two 

 segments instead of the last segment, are polished black, and 

 the polished black areas at the base of the segments are 

 larger; the spines at the tips of the front and the middle tibiae 

 are the same. Were several more specimens taken like the 

 Wyoming one, and showed no variation, I should be inclined 

 to believe them a new species. 



I believe that Monsieur Bigot was quite right in placing picti- 

 tarsis doubtfully under Laparus Loew, and that Dr. Williston 

 is wholly right in considering it as representing a new genus. 

 Loew, in his Bemerkungen uber die Familie der Asiliden, thus 

 characterizes Laparus (now Neoloparus Williston) , " da sie 

 in der Korpergestat und vor allem im Flugelgeader den Di- 

 octrien sehr nahe steht, wahrend sie sich freilich im Baue der 

 Fuhler von ihnen wieder sehr wesentlich unterscheidet." Of 

 his typical species Laparus tabidus, from Brazil, Loew writes, 

 " Kopf wie bei einer Dioctria; Gesicht sehr breit und flach; 

 die Fuhler stehen weder auf einem Hocker noch auf einem 

 Wulst; die beiden erst en Gleider kurz, von gleicher Lange; 

 das 3te Glied gestreckt, eiformig, am Ende mit einem ganz 

 kurzen Griffel, dessen Grundglied napfformig ist und in seiner 

 Endvertiefung das kaum bemerkbare griffelfornige Endglied 

 tragt." And of the anterior tibiae, "mit einem gekrummten 

 Enddorn, welcher sich an einem Hocker anleght, der sich unten 

 an der Basis des ten Fussgliedes findet." As Dr. Williston 

 says, there is no terminal claw-like spur at the end of the 

 anterior tibiae in pictitarsis, and that this fact was the source 

 of Monsieur Bigot's doubt I have no question for, in describing 

 the tibial spine of his specimen, he placed "a pen pres droit" 

 in italics. 



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



