392 ERNEST A. BACK. 



Nicocles rufus (PI. X, fig. 2). 



Nicocles rufus Williston, Trans. Am. Ent. Soc, XI, 18, PI. I, 

 fig. 15, 1884. 



"9- — Length 10-11 mm. — Yellowish-red; the second segments of 

 abdomen with a small semioval black spot at base. Wings hyaline 

 on basal third, on distal part variegated with brown. 



Face dark red, slightly polished, on the sides and upper angles and 

 on the lower parts with pubescence; bristles like the face, yellowish 

 on outer part; pile short, very sparse. Antennae yellowish-red, the 

 basal segments a little darker; first segment scarcely at all longer than 

 the second, style comparatively longer than in abdominalis, nearly' 

 half as long as the third segment. Front opaque. Dorsum of thorax 

 opaque brownish-red, on each side of the middle in front a small spot, 

 and back of the suture above the wings a larger spot of a darker, 

 more reddish-brown color; in front of the scutellum in the middle, a 

 small, oval polished space, on either side of which the color is golden- 

 yellow; along the suture on each side a slender, yellowish-gray stripe. 

 Pleura; thickly reddish-yellow and grayish pubescent. Abdomen pol- 

 ished red; the second segment at the base with a narrow, transverse, 

 semioval polished black spot; on the anterior and posterior angles of 

 the second segment with a small, on the posterior angles of the third 

 and fourth, with a smaller silvery spot; the fifth segment on the sides 

 with a large triangle, narrowly separated from one of the opposite 

 side, and the sixth and seventh segments wholly opaque yellowish. 

 In shape the abdomen has parallel sides to the tip of the second seg- 

 ment, thence widens to the tip of the fourth, thence on the sides more 

 rapidly convergent. Legs wholly red, the coxas yellowish opaque, the 

 bristles light colored. Wings a little broader than in abdominalis, the 

 anterior cross- vein near the middle of the discal cell; on basal third 

 (except extreme base) hyaline, beyond variegated with brown, darker 

 across the middle, the cross-veins and along the veins at tip." 



Type. — University of Kansas. A single female. 



Habitat. — Washington (type) ; Seattle, Wash. (C. W. John- 

 son, May 10). 



Through the kindness of Prof. C. W. Johnson I have the 

 loan of a male specimen of this species. It agrees very well 

 with the above description; the abdomen, however, is typical 

 of this genus in shape, and the fifth and sixth segments are 

 silvery white pruinose. On each side of these two segments 

 there are four or five distinct punctures arranged in two rows 

 of two or three punctures each. The fifth segment is a little 

 more than twice as wide as long. 



