OF NEW ENGLAND. 123 



the head, which is wholly black. The surface is finely 

 punctured, and the front is covered with fine hairs, espec- 

 ially thick on the middle of the clypeus where they form 

 two lines of silvery hairs pointing inwards, while the lines 

 themselves diverge outwards, thus forming a triangular 

 space, and below is another triangle of silvery, but much 

 shorter hairs on the labrum ; the four sub-equal jointed 

 labial palpi are pale testaceous ; the basal joint darker ; 

 the three-jointed maxillary palpi have the middle joint 

 pale, the other two darker. The surface of the black 

 thorax is hardly punctured, but finely and irregularly 

 striated. The pale white wings contrast with the black 

 body ; patagia pale testaceous ; base of the wings black, 

 nervures pale ; the marginal one darkening towards tho 

 blackish pterostigma which is a little paler in the middle. 

 Legs black at their base ; outer two-thirds of first pair, 

 outer half of second, and tip of third pair of femora pale ; 

 fore and middle tibia) and tarsi pale, hind pair pale on the 

 basal two-thirds ; the hind tarsi dark ; all three pairs of 

 claws blackish. Abdomen black, with a few pale sparse 

 hairs. Length of body, .13 ; breadth, .03 length of one 

 primary wing .09 inch. 



This species agrees well with the typical European 

 species in most respects. The antenna} are 18-jointed, 

 and the joints are long cylindrical, impressed in the middle 

 by a slight constriction. The neuration is like Ratze burg's 

 figure of M. flavilabris, but the pterostigma is a little 

 broader, and the outer cubital cell is still more incomplete, 

 no traces of the third and outer side of the minute trian- 

 gular cell being present. 



Two males found by Mr. Putnam to be parasitic on the 

 species of Nephopteryx described above, were raised by 

 him while at Bridport, Vt. 



CONOPS Linnaeus. 



The history of this genus is very fragmentary. I quote 

 from Westwood's " Modern Classification of Insects 77 a 

 summary of what was known in regard to its habits up to 

 the date of the publication of that work. "These insects are 



