PSYCHE. 



NOTES ON TACHINIDAE. 



BY S. WENDELL WILLISTON, LAWRENCE, KANS. 



Some years ago, I described (Trans. 

 Amer. ent. soc. xiii, p. 305) a 

 peculiar genus of Tachinidae, under 

 the name Melanophrys. Very recently, 

 I have had the opportunity of exam- 

 ining specimens of an allied species, 

 the types of Atropharista jurinoides 

 Towns., now in the collection of Mr. 

 Aldrich. A rather peculiar combina- 

 tion of characters which these specimens 

 present will render the following notes 

 of interest. 



In the male of M. Jlavipennis Will., 

 the eyes are conspicuously pilose. In 

 the male of M. jurinoides Towns, the 

 pilosity is inconspicuous ; still hairs can 

 be seen upon close examination. In 

 the females of both species, the eyes 

 are bare even under a searching exam- 

 ination. Hairiness of the eyes is usually 

 considered a generic character in this 

 family ; here it is distinctly sexual. The 

 antennae in the male of M. Jlavipennis 

 have the second joint not more than one- 

 fourth of the length of the third ; in a 

 female taken with the male, the second 

 joint is about three-fourths the length of 

 the third, — it possibly represents a 

 distinct species. In both sexes of M. 

 jurinoides, the third joint is only a little 

 longer than the second. 



In the male of the former species, 

 there is a considerable pilosity on the 

 thorax and abdomen, wanting in all the 

 other specimens, both male and female. 

 M. Jlavipennis otherwise differs from 

 Af. jurinoides in the presence of a pair 

 of median bristles on the hind margin 

 of the second abdominal segment. In 

 M. Jlavipennis, the color-markings of 

 the front of the male are like those of 

 the females of both species; in M. 

 jurinoides they are conspicuously dif- 

 ferent. 



The singular thing about the species 

 is that the females are so remarkably 

 alike that one is only assured that they 

 belong to different species by the pair 

 of bristles on the second abdominal 

 segment. This is all the more strange 

 from the fact that the color-markings, as 

 also the structure of the head, are con- 

 spicuously unlike those of allied genera. 

 I should have mentioned the fact that 

 [ have a female of M. flavipennis, 

 agreeing more nearly with the male in 

 its antennal structure. 



Professor Townsend has recently 

 published a useful table of the 

 North American genera of Tachinidae 

 (Trans. Amer. ent. soc. xix, p. 92, 

 June, '92). Unfortunately its value 



