PSYCHE 



VOL. XXIII OCTOBER, 1916 No. S 



SARCOPHAGID.E OF NEW ENGLAND, III, SARCO- 



FAHRTIA RAVIN I A, NEW GENUS AND 



NEW SPECIES. 



By R. R. Parker. 



Sarcofahrtia Gen. nov. 



Genotype: Sarcofahrtia ravinia sp. nov. 



( cf and 9 •) Rows of frontal bristles not extending below base 

 of vitta and parallel to its sides, except that last one or two pairs 

 may be slightly divergent, uppermost frontal bristle in male not 

 stronger than those immediately beneath and not strongly directed 

 backward, front much broader in females; gena without a row of 

 hairs, hair-like bristles or bristles near lower eye orbit (vestiture 

 sparse and minute in type species); vestiture of back of head 

 black throughout. Epaulets light colored (brownish and light 

 yellowish or only yellowish) vestiture of tibiae short; three 

 pairs posterior dorsocentrals; two notopleurals ; apical bristles 

 absent;^ lower sternopleura with bristles only. Sides of second 

 and third ventral plates in the male overlapped by ventral edges 

 of corresponding nota (usually the second, third and fourth in 

 females) . First genital segment (notum) of male consisting of the 

 fused sixth and seventh abdominal segments (nota) and "hump- 

 backed" in profile (Fig. 3). 



1 In the Sarcophagidse of New England, I (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., V. 35, No. 1, p. 25), 

 the writer defined apical bristles as a "jiair of bristles inserted at the apex of the scutellum, some- 

 times crossing and usually weaker than those next to them laterally. " It is his opinion that in 

 this group of fhes, it is best to consider the terminal bristles of the scutellum as apical only when 

 they are weaker than the next lateral pair. The designation of apical is sometimes a matter 

 of slight difference in position and its significance seems lost unless the above idea is adhered to. 

 The most posterior pair ^n this genus (Sarcofahrtia) are much the strongest and the designation 

 "apical" as of possible application would be a matter of personal fancy, but by the definition 

 given above there is no possibility of misunderstanding, especially when it is desired to refer 

 to their presence or absence. This fact is mentioned because Villeneuve has described a genus 

 Blccsoxiphella in which he notes that the "apical" bristles are the longest (Annales Musei 

 Nationalis Hungarici, Vol. 10, p. 613, 1912). 



