AMERICAN DIPTERA. 377 



I have included both Osten Sacken's and Dr. Williston's 

 remarks because I firmly believe that the genus Cophura as it 

 stands, is more or less of a repository for small Asilids of this 

 subfamily that have the front tibiae armed with a terminal 

 claw-like spur and do not fit into any of the other genera. 

 There is a vast difference between sodalis, for which Osten 

 Sacken erected this genus, and cristata, which looks quite like 

 some species of Cyrtopogon. Osten Sacken is quite right when 

 he says that sodalis has somewhat the appearance of Holco- 

 cephala. None of the other species now contained in Cophura 

 have such a look. Until more material is in collections, I be- 

 lieve that less harm will be done by leaving the genus as it now 

 is. Personally I believe that sodalis is distinct from the other 

 species now in the genus. To my knowledge, the only material 

 of this genus in American collections is the type specimens 

 except in the case of cristata and fallei. 



SYNOPSIS OF SPECIES. 



! Thoracic dorsum with a very pronounced crest of hair (PI. VIII, 

 fig. 5) extending along the medain line 2. 

 Thoracic dorsum without such a crest 3. 



Scutellum with four marginal bristles cristata. 



{ 



Scutellum with many marginal bristles fallei. 



3. brevicornis, clausa, fur, scitula, trimca. 



Cophura cristata. 



Blacodes cristatus Coquillett, Can. Ent., XXV, 33, 1893. 

 Cophura cristata Jones, Tr. Am. Ent. Soc, XXXIII, 2S0; 1907. 

 "9- — Length 11 mm. — Wholly black, the tibiae slightly piceous. 

 Head light gray pruinose, that in the middle of the front dark brown; 

 face moderately convex, mystax black and white, very dense and ex- 

 tending nearly to the antennas; first segment of antennas slightly 

 longer than the second; third segment lanceolate, three times as long 

 as the second segment; style slender, slightly over half as long as the 

 third segment. Thorax very convex, gray pruinose and marked with 

 a broad blackish-brown geminate median stripe, which is consider- 

 ably dilated outwardly behind the middle; on each side of the stripe 

 is a broad, irregular blackish-brown stripe extending but little in front 

 of the middle of the dorsum; the median brown stripe bears numerous 

 black and light yellow pile, which, on the anterior portion, forms a 

 nearly erect crest; bristles of thorax black and light yellow; pleura 

 mottled light gray and dark brown pruinose, the pile white; the fan- 

 like row of bristles in front of the halteres is white. Scutellum brown 



TRANS. AM. ENT. SOC, XXXV. (48) SEPTEMBER, 1909 



