THE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XLVI.] JANUARY, 1913. [No. 596 



PARYDROPTERA DISCOMYZINA AND PHILYGRIA 

 SEMIALATA; NEW PALiEARCTIC EPHYDRIDiE 

 (DIPTERA). 



By J. E. Collin, F.E.S. 



(Plate II.) 



A single specimen of a remarkable Ephydrid in the late 

 Mr. Verrall's collection, bearing a locality label, " Rye, 25.5.02, 

 W. Bennett," had always been a puzzle to me. I was therefore 

 more than pleased to receive from Mr. Claude Morley. in July, 

 and again in September, 1912, several specimens of the same 

 fly, found by him at Southwold (Suffolk), where they occurred 

 on the mud about the roots of the salt-marsh herbage. A study 

 of these specimens convinced me that they must represent not 

 only a new species but a new genus, which I propose to name 

 Parydroptera discomyzina, because, though in many respects 

 resembling a Discomyza, it has a Parydra-like venation. 



Parydroptera, n. gen. 



Belonging to the subfamily Notiphilinae, and distinguished from 

 Discomyza by its less flattened shape, less concave back of head, 

 more rounded ridge between back of head and vertex, by the smooth 

 face without bristles, the only pubescent arista, the absence of the 

 humeral bristle, by the fronto-orbital bristle pointing forwards, not 

 backwards, the smaller mouth-opening and stouter base of proboscis, 

 and by its Parydra-like venation. 



Parydroptera discomyzina, n. sp. 



$ ? . A brownish-black species with head and thorax mottled 

 with grey ; wings with a very distinctive venation, and when at rest 

 bent over at the tip and closely adpressed over the abdomen. 



Head (figs. 2 and 3) broader than long or deep, in profile not 

 much flattened, the jowls and back of head being wide and the face 

 rounded. Eyes with very short scattered microscopic hairs. Frons 

 much wider than long ; vertical triangle large, rounded, and reaching 

 forward to frontal margin, brown with a grey central stripe from 

 front ocellus onwards, and a small grey patch at each side of ocellar 

 triangle on the vertex ; vertical and fronto-orbital bristles placed 



ENTOM. — JANUARY, 1913. B 



