282 NORTH AMERICAN TRYPETINA. 



tip and the tibiae are yellowish-brown, the tarsi dirty yellowish ; 

 in paler specimens tibiae and femora are not much darker than 

 the tarsi; front femora with black bristles; tarsi, especially their 

 first joint, somewhat longer than usual, especially in T. solida- 

 ginis. Knob of the halteres blackish or black. The wings broad 

 and very obtuse at the end, blackish-brown or black, including the 

 extreme root ; upon their whole surface are a very variable 

 number of very small dots of but moderate transparency ; upon 

 the anterior margin, immediately beyond the stigma, there is a 

 triangular hyaline spot, the tip of which does not quite reach the 

 third longitudinal vein and which includes a blackish-brown 

 crossline, extending from the costa to the second longitudinal 

 vein ; the end of the sixth ve,in is surrounded by a cluster of small, 

 more or less coalescent drops, which extends especially on the 

 anterior side of this vein; the extreme tip of the wing has a very 

 narrow hyaline border, which begins a little before the tip of the 

 third longitudinal vein and ends beyond the tip of the fourth 

 vein ; at the tip of these veins the border is very often interrupted ; 

 on the posterior margin of the wing there are often two, some- 

 times three or four, in such a case larger, hyaline drops. The 

 third longitudinal vein is beset with scattered but distinct 

 bristles ; at its end, it is strongly bent backwards so that its 

 divergency from the second vein is unusually large ; the latter 

 ends rather far from the apex of the wing; the crossveins are but 

 little approximated, the small one is oblique, the posterior one 

 arcuated. 



Hob. Kentucky (Wiedemann) ; Maryland (Osten-Sacken). 



Observation 1. This species is subject to remarkable varia- 

 tions in the coloring of the body, as well as in the shape of the 

 wings; the tip of the latter is sometimes more, sometimes less 

 distinctly obtuse ; all these differences certainly do not constitute 

 specific distinctions. The figure which I have given in the first 

 volume of these Monographs was prepared from a specimen in 

 the Berlin Museum, and as it is based upon a rather hasty pencil 

 sketch, made many years previously, it lays no claim upon an 

 absolute fidelity. This figure shows some discrepancies however, 

 which raise a suspicion that this Berlin specimen is not Trypeta 

 comma at all, but a closely allied species. 



Observation 2. Trypeta comma differs from T. solidaginis in 

 its larger eyes, a less excavated face, and a smaller and much 



