54 



by Verrall (British Flies, vol. 8, p. 49, 1901 only strengthen the 

 supposition that this may prove to be the same species. In the 

 absence of European material, however, I will still retain the 

 name applied to the American form. 



Some forty males and thirty-five females are before me and of 

 these twenty-two males and twenty-four females were taken at 

 the same time and place — Newton and Brookline (woods near 

 Hammond's Pond), September 18, and Auburndale, Massachu- 

 setts, September 4, 22; Center Harbor, New Hampshire, Sep- 

 tember 11; and Mt. Desert, Maine, September 7 (C. W. Johnson) ; 

 on a schooner five miles off the Isles of Shoals, September 5, and 

 Bolton Mt., Vermont, August 30-September 10 (Owen Bryant) ; 

 Orono, Maine, August 12, bred from fungus (Dr. 0. A. Johann- 

 sen) . One male from Mt. Desert has the halteres yellow as in the 

 female. The species has been recorded from New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania and Virginia. 



Platypeza infumata Haliday. 

 Plate 5, fig. 11. 

 P. infumata Haliday, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 1, vol. 2, p. 184, 1838. 



I have before me some sixteen specimens that agree with the 

 original description and the description and figures given by 

 Verrall. The female is readily recognized by the disk of the tho- 

 rax being black with a tridentate margin behind. The lateral 

 ;spot on the third abdominal segment varies in size, in some speci- 

 mens reaching the posterior margin, but the majority are typical. 

 The males that undoubtedly belong to this species, have an indis- 

 tinct band at the base of the third abdominal segment in addition 

 to those on the fourth and fifth segments; the base of the sixth is 

 also brown, with a grayish-white tip, bearing a row of yellow 

 bristle-like hairs. 



It has a wide distribution, being represented from the following 

 localities: — Mt. Washington carriage road, at about 2,500 feet, 

 July 24 and 28, and "Glen" (Osgood Trail), New Hampshire, 

 July 15, 1915; Hampton, New Hampshire, May 15 (S. A. Shaw); 

 Waltham, Norwood (Ellis Station), May 24, and Chester, Massa- 

 chusetts, August 6, 1914; Button woods, Rhode Island, June 18; 

 Pottstown, Pennsylvania, June 15 (C. W. Johnson) ; East Aurora, 

 Colden, and Gowanda, New York, May 18- June 7; Berkeley, 

 California, May 16 (M. C. Van Duzee). 



Platypeza obscura Loew. 



The type, a female from Pennsylvania, is the only specimen 

 I have seen of this species, although it has been recorded from 

 Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, by Mrs. A. T. Slosson. It 

 has the venation of P. velutina, but the abdomen is marked with 

 small whitish triangles at the anterior angle of each segment; legs 

 and halteres yellowish. 



