SARCOPHAGA AXD ALIJES 7 



morphologj% together with full descriptions of the 

 males of seven species in the genera (or subgenera) 

 Ravinia and Bottcheria. 



At the request of the late F. M. Webster, 

 then in charge of the section of Cereal and Forage 

 Insect Investigations of the United States Bureau 

 of Entomology, the writer undertook, in December, 

 1913, the project of a revision of the North American 

 Sarcophagidfe. The necessity for this arose from fre- 

 quent rearings of Sarcophagas as important parasites 

 of grasshoppers, and the desire to get these parasites 

 named and classified so that they might be properly 

 studied. 



Limits of the Group. 



No distinct limits to the family Sarcophagid^e 

 have appeared in recent literature. On the one hand, 

 and most commonly, they have been lumped with 

 Tachinidge ; on the other the family is extended to in- 

 clude Metopia and Senotainia, which from the bare 

 or nearly bare arista have been usuallv included in 

 Tachinidfe. 



In the present work, I have endeavored to in- 

 clude all Muscoid species which agree in having gen- 

 eral gray or silvery, tessellated or changeable polli- 

 nose coloration, the fourth vein ending considerably 

 before the apex of the wing and with an almost angu- 

 lar bend, the parafacials hairy, the arista plumose 

 above and below for half its length or a little more. 

 None of the species have discal macrochaet^e on tlie 

 abominal segments, hairy eyes, long proboscis, rudi- 

 mentary palpi, or more than a single pair of discal 

 scutellar bristles. Species ordinarily considered Tach- 

 inid are excluded by the bare arista ; most Dexiids bv 

 the greater extent of the plumosity of the arista and 

 bv discal abdominal or scutellar bristles, or combina- 

 tions of these characters; Muscid^e (sens, str.) by the 

 arista being plumose to the tip, the color often metal- 

 lic, the a])domen less bristly, the fourth vein often with 

 rounded bend, or combinations of these; Calliphora 

 and Cynomyia, which have an arista like Sarcophaga, 



