42 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. [Proc. 3D Ser. 



41. Parasyntormon asellus, sp. nov. 



Plate III, Figs. 64-67. 



Male. Length 2.5-3 "^"^- ! length of wing 2-2.5 mi"- Proboscis and palpi 

 small, blackish, the latter covered with gray dust. Face rather broad for a 

 male, overlaid with dull gray dust. Antennae black, unusually long; first 

 joint long, gradually enlarging to its tip, without hairs or a ventral projection, 

 in some specimens brownish; second joint with the usual black hairs, over- 

 lapping the third on the inside with a thumb-like lobe, which is a third as 

 long as the third joint; third joint somewhat longer than the head, tapering, 

 covered with conspicuous pile; arista apical, scarcely one-fifth as long as the 

 third joint, rather thick, pubescent. Front covered with dull gray dust like 

 the face. Postocular cilia black above, snowy white below. Thorax metallic 

 green, so thickly covered with grayish brown dust that the ground-color is 

 scarcely perceptible; bristles, especially those on the humeri, prominent. 

 Scutellum of the same dull color as the thorax, with only two large bristles. 

 Abdomen greenish bronze, blacker towards the tip. Appendages of the 

 small hypopygium black, exserted, consisting of a pair of posteriorly directed 

 projections fringed with diverging black hairs and each prolonged into a 

 long hair, and a pair of club-shaped, truncated, anteriorly directed append- 

 ages with but few black hairs; penis slender, yellow, directed backwards. 

 Pleurae, middle and hind coxae dark colored, opaque with a thick layer of 

 gray dust; fore coxae yellow, very slightly infuscated at the base. Legs yel- 

 low, tips of the hind tibiae and all the tarsi from the tip of the first joint, 

 infuscated; middle and hind tarsi plain; fore metatarsus rather slender, with 

 three prominent equidistant black bristles on the basal half of its plantar sur- 

 face; second joint distinctly incrassated, third joint with a curved spur-like 

 bristle near its proximal end on the inside. Wings grayish hyaline, rather 

 broad at the tip, narrowed towards the base. Second and third veins dis- 

 tinctly diverging and rather far apart at their tips in the costa; third vein 

 bending down gently but running parallel with the fourth for some distance, 

 the fourth ascending gently during the first part of its course. Discal cell 

 small and narrow, the posterior cross-vein being short, the distal segment of 

 the fifth vein nearly four times as long as the posterior cross-vein. Halteres 

 and tegulse brownish yellow, the latter with black cilia. 



Female. Length 2.5-3 rnm.; length of wing 2-2.5 mm. Proboscis and 

 palpi larger than those of the male, the latter with whitish edges. Face cov- 

 ered with gray dust, not very much broader. Antennae much shorter but 

 with longer arista than in the male; the overlapping portion of the second 

 joint is a short lobe, the third joint is somewhat pentagonal and bluntly 

 pointed, but little longer than broad, and covered with short but distinct pile. 

 The arista is praeapical, and slightly pubescent. The coloring of the body 

 and legs as in the male; venter covered with gray dust. Fore tarsi plain. 

 Wings with distinct anal angle not narrowed proximally as in the male. 



Many specimens of both sexes of this species were taken 

 by me at Coronado, Calif., early in March, 1897, while 

 sweeping in a salt-marsh on San Diego Bay. 



