494 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



colored, segment 3 next; eye with a prickle ; temporal 

 margins with a single long hair and some fine prickles ; 

 occipital margin straight, bare ; antennal bands blackish 

 brown, not quite meeting in front, leaving a small uncol- 

 ored space on frontal margin, and bending angularly in 

 at posterior ends; narrow blackish brown ocular and 

 temporal margins, paling gradually inward from margin 

 of head. 



Prothorax short, rectangular, with a single hair in pos- 

 terior angles; blackish brown lateral borders. Meta- 

 thorax trapezoidal, posterior margin very flatly convex on 

 abdomen, with an angular indication at middle; six pus- 

 tulated hairs on each outer third of the posterior margin; 

 broad, ill-defined lateral border, with transversal lateral 

 blotch extending from each side. Legs pale, with black- 

 ish brown dorsal marginal markings. "Sternum with in- 

 tercoxal lines but no median blotches. 



Abdomen, elliptical; broad for this group of Nirnii, 

 with posterior angles of segments, uncolored, blunt, pro- 

 jecting slightly; two or three hairs in posterior angles 

 and a series of four longish hairs on the posterior margin 

 of each of segments 2-7; segment 1 without hairs and 

 segment 8 with more than four hairs; whitish, with dis- 

 tinct broad, blackish lateral bands, and pale brownish 

 median blotches; segment 8 without lateral bands, but 

 with narrow transversal median blotch reaching almost 

 entirely across segment; segment 9 uncolored, slightly 

 angularly emarginated behind. 



Nirmus illustris n. sp. (Plate lxvii, fig. 4.) 



Found on a Red-winged Blackbird, Agelaius -phceniceus 

 (Lawrence, Kansas). This small but striking Nirmus 

 does not show special resemblance to any previously 

 described species. 



