64 AMERICAN BLACK FLIES OR BUFFALO GNATS. 



pale at base, tibia? whitish dusted, dorsally, at base. Win»s clear, 

 thick veins brown. Halteres yellow. 



Frons slightly divergent-sided, less than one-third as wide as head 

 at upper angle of eyes, surface hairs pale, sparse ; face subquadrate, 

 as broad as frons at upper angle, surface hairs pale, more numerous 

 than on face, postocular cilia pale, with a few intermixed, longer, 

 blackish hairs. Scutum with whitish hairlike pilosity, a few longer, 

 dark hairs in posterior depression ; pleural tuft pale ; scutellum with 

 upright pale hairs. Abdominal basal fringe white; apical segments 

 of abdomen with sparse, short, white hairs. Legs with white pilosity 

 and longer, brownish, upright, dorsal hairs, fore tarsi slightly di- 

 lated, the apical paired hairs absent or very inconspicuous; claws 

 simple (PI. II, fig. 9). Wing venation normal. 



Length, 2-3 mm. 



Male.— Opaque, velvety black. Antennte black, sometimes slightly 

 paler at base. Scutum with anterior, posterior, and lateral margins 

 white pollinose; in some lights there are visible two straight longi- 

 tudinal dorsal stripes which do not reach beyond middle of disk; 

 in one or two cases there is an indication of the white spots, which 

 show in many specimens of pictipes Hagen, on the anterior margin 

 slightly nearer center than stripes ; pilosity yellow, hairlike ; pleural 

 tuft brownish. Basal fringe of abdomen brown, abdominal segments 

 opaque black, sides of segments 1-3 generally silvery pollinose. Legs 

 colored as in female, but the mid tibiae generally less distinctly pale 

 at base, and the hairs longer; claws trifid. Otherwise as female. 

 Hind leg of male figured on Plate V, figure 2. 



There are specimens in the collection which I consider as belonging 

 to this species from the following localities: Glencoe, Nebr. (E. A. 

 Dodge) ; Eichmond, Ind, (W. S. Eatcliff) ; Minnesota (Lugger) ; 

 Grand Eapids, Minn., August 18, 189G; Niagara Falls, November, 

 1896, Pikes Peak, Colo., 10,000 feet, September 17 (T. D. A. Cock- 

 erell) ; Death Valley, Cal., April, 1891 (Koebele) ; Los Angeles, Cal., 

 July (collection Coquillett) ; Onaga, Kans., in hog's ear; Yakutat 

 and Kadiak, Alaska, June-July (T. Kincaid) ; Spartanburg, S. C, 

 July, 1912 (Jennings and King) ; Sabina, Tex., March 22, 1911 (C. T. 

 Atkinson) ; Victoria, Tampico, Mexico, December, 1910, biting burros 

 (F. C. Bishopp). There are examples of this species in the Illinois 

 State Laboratory of Natural History collection from Ottawa and 

 Algonquin, 111. The species has been found commonly in all stages 

 at Havana on the Illinois Eiver. The larvae and pwpsc have been 

 taken in the Illinois Eiver and also in various creeks in Illinois. 



There are only two cases in which this species is given as attack- 

 ing animals in the foregoing list. Johannsen does not give any indi- 

 cation of its habits, but Lugger,^ in referring to this species as 



1 Bui. 48, Minn. Agr. Exp. Sta., 1896, p. 207. 



