22 THOMAS Sx\Y FOUNDATION 



Genus PHRISSOPODIA Macq. 



Macquart, Nist. Nat. Dipt., ii, 222, 1835. Type designated 

 as Peckia imperialis Desvoidy, which is stated to be 

 without doubt the same as Sarcophaga praeceps Wied. 



Macquart, Dipteres Exotiques, ii, pt. iii, 253 (sep. 96), 

 spelled Phrissopoda and Phryssopoda. 



Bauer und von Bergenstamm, Zweifl. Kais. Mus. iv, 1889 

 Phrissopoda); vi, 163, 1893 (id.). 

 This genus has by several writers been regarded 

 as a synonym of Peckia Desvoidy (Myodaires, 1830, 

 335 ) . The latter contained five species, no type be- 

 ing designated; only one {imperialis) had the shining- 

 black abdomen, the others apparently not differing 

 from Sarcophaga as taken in the present work. Mac- 

 quart was entirely within his rights in isolating ivi- 

 perialis in a new genus, and the only defect in his pro- 

 cedure as viewed by the most critical modern was that 

 he failed to designate a type for Peckia from among 

 the four species remaining in it. But it was not the 

 fashion in those days for an entomologist to designate 

 a type for another man's genus, if indeed he did so 

 ■for his own. Macquart's genus Pln-issopodia was a 

 valid genus at the time ; it contained besides imperialis 

 ( ^praeceps) one other species evidently congeneric 

 in the modern sense, also with a shining black abdo- 

 men. 



Brauer and Bergenstamm in 1889 gave a rather 

 full description of j^f'^iecejJS Wied., apparently from 

 the types. 



Generic characters: Very large, robust species, 

 with shining black abdomen and the male having on 

 the middle and hind legs very abundant, bushy vil- 

 losity, both on femora and tibiae. 



Head as in Sarcophaga; front narrowed in male, 

 without ocellars or orbitals (B. B. however mention 

 two pairs of vestigial orbitals in the male) ; third an- 

 tennal joint more than three times the second in the 

 male, nearly three times in female; epistoma some- 

 what produced forward and downward in the male, 

 where the vibriss^e are a little above the oral magrin; 

 facialia hairy halfway up. 



