6o2 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



the mouth parts (Kans. Univ. Quart, i, pp. ioi-ii8),Iam 

 quite prepared to accept the family Apioceridse. There 

 seems an abundance of difference between this family 

 and the Asilida; on the one side and between it and the 

 Mydaida? on the other. These differences are certainly 

 more in favor of the Asilida^ than of the Mydaidae, 

 though they are too great to admit of uniting them in 

 the same family. 



The small cross -vein on the posterior margin of the 

 wing (between the anal cell and the tip of wing) is dis- 

 tinct and well developed throughout in all my speci- 

 mens oi xanthos, mcUifex d^n^ acton; but it is atrophied 

 terminally in both specimens of episcoptis (see description 

 of that species). It should also be noted that the apical 

 style of third antennal joint is minute in all the species, 

 almost microscopical. 



23. Rhaphiomidas acton Coquillett. Sonora, Mex- 

 ico (Eisen). One male. It agrees in every particular 

 with Mr. Coquillett's description (W. Am. Sci. vii, pp. 

 85-6), except that the hypopygium is more than one-half 

 as long as abdomen. (Abdomen measures 9 mm. ; hypo- 

 pygium, nearly 6 mm.) Length (hypopygiums deflected 

 upward), 23 mm.; of wing, 18 mm.; expanse, about 42 

 mm. 



The ocelli show very plainly, not as convex and shin- 

 ing, but as excavated and yellowish pollinose, leaving 

 only a circular shining blackish rim. 



Coquillett does not give a full description of acton, but 

 compares it with R. inellifcx, which he identified as epis- 

 copns. The present specimen has, in addition to the 

 black of the abdomen mentioned by Coquillett, four black 

 lateral spots on segments 2,3,4 ^^^ 5- They are rather 

 triangular in shape, and decrease markedly in size pos- 

 teriorly, the first being large and the fourth minute and 



