inse;cutor insciti^ menstruus 93 



THE ANTHOMYIID GENUS ATHERIGONA 

 IN AMERICA 



(Dipt era) 

 By J. M. ALDRICH 



The genus Atherigona was established by Rondani in 1856 

 (Prodrome, i, 97). He included but one species, which he 

 designated as type — Coenosia varia Mg. Schiner in 1862 

 (Fauna Austr., i, 669) redescribed both genus and species. 

 Rondani again in 1877 (Prodrome, vi, 15, 250) describes the 

 genus and species, but makes the latter a synonym of quadri- 

 punctata Rossi; he adds a new Italian species, soccata.. Meade 

 (Descriptive List Br. Anth., ii, 76, 1897) also redescribes the 

 genus and type species. 



Stein has dealt with the genus several times. In 1900 

 (Termesz. Fiizetek, xxiii, 154—159) he described five species 

 from New Guinea; in 1902 (Mittheil. Zool. Mus. Berlin, ii, 

 110) he adds one from Egypt; in volume iii of the Palaearctic 

 Catalogue (1907) he lists two European and several eastern 

 species. In 1913 (Annales Mus. Nat. Hung., xi, 529-541) he 

 discusses the genus at some length, on the basis of abundant 

 African and oriental material, describing six more species and 

 recognizing Coenosia laeta Wied. as a prior name for one of 

 his own earlier ones. 



Meanwhile, Grimshaw in 1902 (Fauna Hawaiiensis, Dipt., 

 41) had described Acritochaeta pulvinata new genus and 

 species from Hawaii, regarded as a subgenus by Stein. 



This is all the literature known to me, embodying about 18 

 species, of which two are European, the remainder essentially 

 oriental in distribution, but covering a wide range from Africa 

 to Hawaii. Nothing, I believe, has been published on habits, 

 and there is no reference to any American occurrence. 



Grimshaw's species, which I would call Atherigona pulvi- 

 nata, has come to me for identification as a fruit insect several 

 times in recent years, and has a wide distribution in tropical 

 and subtropical America, as well as in the Pacific Islands, as 

 shown by the following records, in which A indicates material 



