SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT. 77 



Drosophila busckii CoquiUett. 1901. Ent. News, 12, 18. (Plate II, fig. 2.) 

 D. Tubrostriata Becker. 1908. Mitt. zool. Mus., 4. 

 D. plurilineata Villeneuve. 1911. Wien. ent. Zeit., 30. 



cf , 9 . Arista with about six branches above and two below. Antennae yellow, third 

 joint dark brown. Front over one-half width of head, wider above; yellow, ocellar dot 

 dark brown. Second orbital nearly as long as third, which is about three-fourths first. 

 Second oral bristle nearly as long as first. Carina high, slightly flattened; face yellow. 

 Cheeks pale yellow; their greatest width about one-third greatest diameter of eyes. Eyes 

 with rather thick pile. 



Acrostichal hairs in eight rows; no prescutellar bristles. Mesonotum and scutellum 

 yellow, with three longitudinal black stripes on the mesonotum; one in each dorsocentral 

 line (these do not quite reach the anterior margin of the thorax) and one median one, the 

 latter being bifid behind and the two prongs sometimes joining the lateral stripes at the 

 region of the dorsocentral bristles. There is also a stripe running from just above the 

 humerus to just above the wing. Pleurae pale yellow, with a reddish-brown stripe running 

 forward from the base of the wing; another one just below the base of the wing; and a spot 

 on the sternopleura. Legs pale yellow. Apical bristles on first and second tibiae, preapicals 

 evident only on third. 



Abdomen yellow, each segment with an apical black band that is interrupted in the mid- 

 dorsal line, and attenuated or interrupted between that line and each lateral margin of the 

 abdomen. 



Wings clear. Costal index about 3.1; fourth- vein index about 2.1; 5x index about 1.9; 

 4c index about 1.0. 



Length body 2 mm.; wing 2 mm. 



Specimens examined: Hanover, New Hampshire; Sharon (C. W. John- 

 son), Boston (C. W. Johnson), New Bedford, Woods Hole, Massachusetts; 

 New Haven, Connecticut (C. W. Johnson); New York, Flatbush (J. L. 

 Zabriskie), New York; New Brunswick, New Jersey (F. E. Lutz); Plum- 

 mer's Island, Maryland (R. C. Shannon) ; District of Columbia (coll. U. S. 

 Nat. Mus.); Clarendon (B. A. Reynolds), Richmond, Virginia; Charles- 

 town, West Virginia (A. Busck, type) ; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (H. Kahl) ; 

 Elkhart (Johnson coll.), North Manchester (R. R. Hyde), Bloomington (F. 

 Payne), Indiana; Algonquin (D. W. CoquiUett), Flat Rock (F. N. Duncan), 

 Illinois; Jacksonville (Mrs. Slosson), Tampa (C. W. Metz), Lakeland (C. 

 W. Metz), Florida; Kushla, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana (P. Viosca); 

 Amity, Oregon (D. E. Lancefield); Claremont (L. L. Gardner), Santa 

 Paula (E. 0. Essig), California; Santiago de las Vegas, Guantanamo (C. 

 W. Metz), Cuba; Norway (0. L. Mohr); Perth, West Australia (G. 

 Compere). Recorded from Lawrence, Kansas (Kahl); Minnesota (Coquil- 

 lett); Paris, France, perhaps introduced (Villeneuve); Canary Islands 

 (Becker); Southwest Africa (Schulze). 



The synonymy of ruhrostriata and plurilineata has been pointed out 

 both by Becker and by Villeneuve. That both are synonyms of D. busckii 

 CoquiUett was first pointed out to me by the late Mr. F. Knab, and was 

 published by me (1918, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 38, 445). 



I have bred this species from the following: bread and milk, moist bran, 

 rotten pigeon egg, stale formalinized chicken, sour milk, spinach leaves, 

 banana, flour paste, decayed onions, rotten fish, rotten potato, tomato, 

 fungi. CoquiUett records it as bred also from burrows of Chion cindus, 

 and Schulze reared it from a Hottentot's head that had been preserved in 

 formalin. Mr. R. C. Shannon has bred it from butternut husks. Howard 

 records it as caught on human excrement. The surest way of catching 

 it is to expose rotten potatoes or to put out fruit or other suitable ma- 

 terial near a stable. It can easily be kept breeding in the laboratory on 

 sour milk or moist bran, and will breed on the banana agar described 

 above. 



