52 THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF DROSOPHILA. 



Recorded from Kansas (Kahl) and Texas (Loew). 



The species is not uncommon about bleeding trees, and I have taken it 

 on a garbage pail. 



Ctirtonotum Macquart. 1843. Dipt, exot., 2, 3, 193. 



Diploccntra Loew. 1S59. Zeitschr. ent. Breslau. 13, 13. 



Like Aulacigaster and Apsinota, this genus has a well-developed auxiliary 

 vein, so that its position among the Drosophilinse is somewhat doubtful. 

 The arista is long plumose; two prominent orbitals, placed unusually far 

 from the eyes, with a minute bristle between them; vibrissse large; ocellars 

 and post verticals large; eyes relatively small, nearly bare; carina small, face 

 slightly convex; front with a few small scattered hairs ; two humerals; one 

 presutural; two notopleurals; two supra-alars, anterior one small; two 

 postalars; two dorsocentrals; one prescutellar; two pairs of scutellars, 

 posterior one convergent; disk of scutellum hairy; mesonotum strongly 

 convex; one small propleural; mesopleurss with a few large bristles (near 

 posterior margin) and numerous hairs; two or three sternopleurals; pre- 

 apicals on all tibiae; costa pectinate, weak between tips of third and fourth 

 veins; discal and second basal cells confluent; anal cell and vein well 

 developed; first posterior cell not narrowed at apex; costa twice broken. 



Macquart based the genus on a single species, the South American Musca 

 gihha Fabricius, which thus becomes the type species. This form had been 

 referred to the genus Helomyza by Wiedemann; and Schiner placed the 

 genus in the Helomyzidse. Loew and Osten Sacken both referred it to the 

 Geomyzidae, but it is now placed among the Drosophilinae by common 

 consent (e. g., by Aldrich, Hendel, Melander, Oldenberg, and Williston). 

 It is perhaps most conveniently left here. 



There is one Palaearctic species (C anus Meigen), one Oriental (C. arenata 

 Osten Sacken, from the Philippines), two Ethiopian (C. pictipennis Thomson 

 and C. fuscipennis Macquart), one Nearctic (C. helva Loew), and twelve 

 Neotropical. 



The Neotropical species have been tabled and discussed by Hendel (1913, 

 Deutsch. ent. Zeitschr., 619). Curtonotum decumanum Bezzi, from Para- 

 guay, has been described since (1914, Deutsch. ent. Zeitschr., 199). The 

 only ones of these known from Our region are C. gibhuyn Fabricius and 

 C. simplex Schiner, reported from Mexico by Giglio-Tos. The single 

 Nearctic species is discussed below. 



Ciirtonottiin helva Loew. 1862. Berlin ent. Zeit. (as Diplocentra). 



Specimens examined: Brattleboro, Vermont (C. W. Johnson); Cohassett 

 (O. Brj^ant), Chester (C. W. Johnson), Cambridge (C. W. Johnson), Woods 

 Hole (on windfall apples). West Chop (C. W. Johnson), Massachusetts; 

 Buttonwoods, Rhode Island (C. W. Johnson); Orient, Long Island, New 

 York (J. L. Zabriskie) ; Westville, Riverton, New Jersey (C. W. Johnson) ; 

 Chesapeake Beach, Maryland (J. M. Aldrich); Virginia Beach, Virginia 

 (F. C. Pratt); Valley of Black Mountains, North Carolina (W. Beuten- 

 muller); Georgia (Morrison); La Fayette, Indiana (J. M. Aldrich); Chi- 

 cago, Illinois (Aldrich coll.). The type material came from "North Red 

 River." 



The breeding-habits of the genus are apparently unknown. Mr. Johnson 

 tells me that C. helva is to be collected by sweeping in high grass in moist 

 places, such as are frequented by Sciomyzinae. 



Note. Since the above was written I have seen Enderlein's paper (1917. Zool. Anz. 

 49; 68-72) deaUng with Curtonotum. He describes two new species from South America 



