1919] Plath: Larvce of Phormia 379 



Description of the New Species of Phormia. 



By C. H. T. TowNSEND, 

 United States Bureau of Entomology, Washington, D. C. 



Phormia metallica n. sp. 



Length, 7 to 8.5 mm. Twenty-eight specimens, all females; eight 

 pinned from New Hampshire, Virginia, Illinois, Wisconsin; and twenty, 

 of which ten are alcoholic, from Puget Sound. Washington State, 

 reared by Mr. O. E. Plath from maggots taken from nests containing 

 young birds. 



Female vertex one-sixth to one-fourth head width. Head brownish, 

 thinly olive-grayish pollinose, with more or less of a brassy tinge. 

 Viewed obliquely from below the whole face appears blackish, with a 

 conspicuous golden spot at upper end of both parafacilia. Antennae 

 wholly blackish or brown, the third joint one and one-half to two times 

 as long as second. Palpi fulvous to rufous, the tips fuscous. Thorax 

 and scutellum dark metallic greenish-black to bright cupreous or brassy- 

 green, silvery to olive-gray pollinose, leaving three nearly equal and 

 rather heavy vittse of the ground color. There is a faint narrow dark 

 vitta barely visible in front close on each side of the median vitta in 

 some specimens. Abdomen metallic dark bluish-green to bright 

 cupreous or golden-green, showing thin silvery pollen coat in certain 

 lights, the anal segment always cupreous to golden-green. Legs 

 blackish. Wings clear. Tegulas white to buff- yellow. 



Holotype from Franconia, New Hampshire. 



There is a well marked difference in the two forms here 

 described as one species. The typical form, represented from 

 all the above localities, is the darker one, with only the anal 

 segment golden-green, and the tegulas white. The vertex is 

 about or nearly one-fourth head width, and the length is 7 to 

 8.5 mm. Thoracic pollen silvery. 



The other form, represented by three New Hampshire and 

 four Puget Sound specimens, has the abdomen wholly cupreous 

 to golden-green, the anal segment being concolorous; the thorax 

 and scutellum cupreous to brassy-green, almost the same shade 

 as abdomen; and the tegulas deep buff -yellow. This form will 

 perhaps prove to be a good subspecies, or it may even be specifically 

 distinct. The front is narrower in this form, the vertex running 

 from one-sixth to little over one-fifth head width, and the 

 length is 7 to 7.75 mm. Thoracic pollen olive-gray. 



The Puget Sound specimens, of both forms, have the third 

 antennal joint about twice as long as second, the second joint 



