June 1895.] 



PSYCHE. 



251 



Descriptio?i. Elongate oval, tapering 

 toward the base. Sliglitlv bulging on the 

 side awaj from the hair in one specimen, 

 or in the others narrower and more sym- 

 metrical. About two and a half times as 

 long as wide. The empty shell hyaline 

 and beautifully sculptured -with hexagonal 

 reticulations. The hexagons somewhat 

 variable in size and perfectness in diiYerent 



parts of the shell, but average ones about one- 

 twentieth of the width of the shell. The 

 surface apparently smooth, the angles of 



the reticulations not beset with points as 

 in the eggs of the Short-nosed ox-louse. 

 Attached to the hair by a cement mass 

 about one-third the length of the egg, as 

 shown in the figure. The cement inass 

 varies in shape, the distance it extends 

 along the hair and the remoteness of the 

 attachment from the root of the hair. The 

 sloping base of the egg is included more or 

 less in the cement mass, and the egg stands 

 somewhat obliquely outward from the hair. 



Below we give measurements of the three 

 eggs observed. The figure, drawn to scale 

 by the writer, shows the egg enlarged 40 

 times. 



Measurements : Specimen (a), length, .S63 

 mm.; width, .38 mm; width of operculum, 

 .265 mm. ; from base of hair, 5 mm. ; cement 

 mass, .345 mm.; hexagonal reticulations of 

 shell, .02 mm. 



Specimen (5), length, .S05 mm.; width, 

 .379 mm.; width of operculum, .253 mm.; 

 from base of hair, 5.75 mm.; cement mass, 

 .2S8 mm. 



Specimen (c), length, .S05 mm.; width, 

 .379 mm.; width of operculum, .265 mm.; 

 from base of hair, lo mm.; cement mass, 

 .312 mm. 



ON THE VALIDITY OF THE TACHINID GENUS CELATORIA. 



BY D. \\ . COQUILLETT, V^'ASHINGTOX, D. C. 



On page 235 of the second volume of 

 Insect life, the writer erected the genus 

 Celatoria for the reception of an inter- 

 esting Californian species of Tachina 

 fly that preys upon tlie adults of the 

 destructive Diabrotica soror^ as many 

 as one-third of these beetles sometimes 

 falling a prey to the attacks of this 

 parasite. The validit}' of this genus 

 has been called in question by the well- 



known authors, Messrs. Brauer and 

 Bergenstamm, who cite it as a synonym 

 of the previously described genus 

 Besseria (Die zweiflugler des Kaiser- 

 lichen Museums zu Wien, vi, 154 and 

 1S9; also p. 220, where the species, 

 craxvii Coq., is erroneously credited to 

 C H. T. Townsend). That these two 

 genera are very distinct from each other 

 may easily be seen by the following 



