Dec, 1908.] Brues : North American Phoridje. 199 



SOME NEW NORTH AMERICAN PHORIDiE. 



By Charles T. Brues, 

 Milwaukee, Wis. 



The new species described below are several recently sent to me 

 for identification, and as all are forms which will be easily recognized 

 on account of their striking characters, I am describing them at the 

 present time. 



Phora variabilis, new species. 



Female. Length 3.7-4 mm. Black, the antennae, palpi and legs yellowish 

 brown, and the fourth to sixth abdominal segments reddish orange. Head shining 

 black, front scarcely broader than high ; lowest reclinate bristles four in number, 

 very closely placed at the prominent median lobe of the anterior margin of the front ; 

 second row slightly curved, the median 'ones farther from each other than from the 

 lateral ones; third row straight, equidistant; occipital row as usual. Antenna; 

 small, oval, brown or fulvous, the dorsal arista without trace of pubescence. Palpi 

 moderately stout, brownish yellow and strongly bristly ; proboscis short, retracted. 

 Cheeks with one large and two smaller macrochsetae. Postocular cilia stout but not 

 enlarged below. Dorsum of thorax subshining, black, pubescent, rather elongate in 

 shape as is also the scutellum ; one pair of dorsocentral macrochaHre and four equally 

 strong scutellar bristles. Abdomen with the second and sixth segments elongated, 

 the first and second except for pale capillary margins black ; third broadly orange-red 

 apically; fourth to sixth orange-red as is also the venter. Apical half of abdomen- 

 strongly hairy, especially below. Legs brownish yellow; anterior tibia; with a single- 

 bristle at the middle ; middle ones with a dorsal pair at the basal third and another 

 dorsal one at the apical third ; posterior pair with a dorsal pair in the type (or a group 

 of three in one specimen) at the basal third, and an external apical one in addition to- 

 two rather slender spurs. Wings hyaline, veins brownish yellow ; costal vein reach- 

 ing slightly beyond the middle, not at all swollen, with very fine and closely placed 

 cilia; second vein ending midway between the humeral cross-vein and the tip of the 

 third ; third vein bristly, or rather hairy, as far as the origin of the second, its fur- 

 cation very acute, the second and third lying very close together ; fourth sharply 

 curved at the base, straight beyond and parallel with the fifth, ending just before the 

 wing tip ; fifth, sixth and seventh but slightly curved. Knob of halteres blackish ; 

 pedicel pale. 



Two specimens: type, Pullman, Wash., July 7, 190S (A. L. 

 Melander); cotype, Florissant, Colo., June 28, 1908 (S. A. Rohwer). 



This species is closely similar to several European ones. It comes 

 nearest perhaps to P. curvinervis Becker, originally described from 

 Europe, but which also occurs in Washington state. However, the 

 second abdominal segment is lengthened and the chretotaxy of the hind 



