74 DIPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. [PART III. 



SYN. Pyrgota millepunctata LOEW, Neue Beitr. II, 22, 50. 



?0xycephala maculipennis MACQ. Dipt. Exot. Suppl. I, p. 210. Tab. 



xxviii, f. 2. 

 Sphecomyia valida HAKKIS, Catal. Ins. Mass. 



Prevailing color of the body pitch-brown, reddish-brown or 

 even brownish-red in less intensely colored specimens, with a 

 black pubescence, which is perceptibly coarser than in the follow- 

 ing species. The occiput has, behind the vertex, a distinct black 

 triangle, with its point directed downwards, which is connected 

 with a black spot on the place where the ocelli should be ; at 

 some distance from this triangle there is, on each side, a large 

 black spot, reaching from the posterior orbit of the eye almost to 

 the point of attachment of the head ; between these spots and 

 the triangle the color is clay-yellow, almost wax-yellow ; the 

 sides of the occiput are generally of a similar yellow color, but 

 become more infuscated towards the orbits and the cheeks, or are 

 tinged with brownish as far as the black spots above. The front 

 has. a broad black stripe, which is divided longitudinally in two 

 by a more or less complete and more or less narrow, sometimes 

 more yellow, sometimes brownish, line ; on both sides, near the 

 orbits, the stripe is margined with yellow. The ordinary strong 

 bristles oil the vertex, the bristle placed in front of these, on 

 each side, near the orbit, and those bristles which arc inserted in 

 the region of the ocelli (which here are wanting), are all present. 

 The first antennal joint is generally rather dark-brown, except at 

 the basis; the second is usually of a dirty brownish-yellow; the 

 third agrees in its coloring sometimes with the- first, sometimes 

 more with the second joint; in some specimens, it is altogether 

 ochre-yellow; the arista is distinctly two-jointed, the first joint 

 short. The face is usually of a dark ferruginous-brownish color- 

 ing, often verging on ochre-yellow on the sides. The" antennal 

 fovea3 are somewhat less deep than in P. undata, but perceptibly 

 longer and separated by a higher ridge. The sides of the face 

 are approximated on the lower half, but not so much by far as in 

 P. undata, so that the middle part of the face has about double 

 the breadth of the other species. The oral opening is more 

 horizontal than in P. undata. The but little developed clypeus 

 is black, the palpi generally yellow ; their shape is almost the 

 same as in P. undata. The ground color of the thorax is clay- 

 yellow or wax-yellow, but with very broad pitch-brown stripes, 



