80 



small spot on the anterior angles of the fifth segment similar in color. Pile 

 yellow basally and on the three yellow bands, elsewhere black. 



Holotype. — <?, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, June 15, 1917, collected by C. W. 

 Johnson; in the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History. 



This species approaches Syrphus nitens, but in that species the 

 forms in which the spots on the second segment reach the lateral 

 margin are much paler and none of them has the yellow side margin 

 of the second segment so broad. The entire fasciae are much 

 straighter than in any specimens of nitens I have seen. This group 

 is an extremely difficult one and large series are necessary in order 

 to determine the limitation of species. 



Epistrophe Walker 

 The genus Epistrophe was established by Walker for the recep- 

 tion of Syrphus grossulariae Mg. (as E. conjugens, n. sp.) in "Insecta 

 Saundersiana," Dipt., pt. 3, p. 242, 1852. As I have limited this 

 group of the old genus Syrphus, Epistrophe takes precedence over 

 Stenosyrphus Mats. (1916), a name I have previously used. 



Epistrophe abruptus, sp. nov. 

 Similar in form to Syrphus transversalis Curran but the cheeks in front, oral 

 margin and median facial stripe are black and the abdomen is entirely shining 

 black. Eyes pilose. 



Female. — Length, 7 mm. Face reddish yellow, with almost whitish, rather 

 thin pollen; median stripe occupying nearly one-fifth the width of the face 

 and reaching almost to the base of the antennae, the oral margin broadly and 

 the cheeks in front, shining black; jowls reddish brown. Pile on sides of face 

 black, elsewhere whitish, not long. In profile the face is rather perpendicular, 

 shallowly concave on the upper half, shortly concave below the rather long, 

 roundish tubercle, the oral tip scarcely projecting. Front shining greenish 

 black, with an arch of yellow pollen a little below the middle, the pollen con- 

 tinuing below along the orbits to the face. The narrow, rounded W above the 

 antennae is reddish. Front wholly black pilose. Occiput aeneous, densely 

 grayish pollinose along the orbits except above; the pile yellow on upper half, 

 white on lower half and cheeks ; occipital ciliae not differentiated. Eyes thinly 

 short whitish pilose. Antennae black; third joint reddish on basal half except 

 above, broad, oval, its upper margin almost straight; arista black, thickened 

 on sub-basal half. 



Mesonotum aeneous, slightly darker on disc; its pile short, fine, yellow. 

 Pleura aeneous, with thin white pollen and white pile. Scutellum translucent 

 reddish, wholly bordered by blackish blue, its pile chiefly black on apical half, 

 short and yellowish on basal half, intermixed toward the middle. 



Legs black, hind femora at apex and broad base of their tibiae, obscurely 

 reddish; apical half or less of front four femora and the whole of their tibiae, 

 brownish red, the knees paler. Legs with pale pile, the posterior tibiae short 

 black pilose. 



Wings cinereous hyaline, stigma luteous. The third vein ends in the tip of 

 the wing. Squamae whitish, with yellowish border and fringe. Halteres yellow. 



Abdomen shining black, the base more greenish black, the pile pale, the 



C)sterior margins of the second to fourth segments broadly black pilose except 

 terally. In shape the abdomen is rather rectangular, the sides strongly 

 curved under from the apex of the second to tip of the fourth segments, the 

 fifth and sixth segments are widest laterally, very narrow in the middle; all 



