Notes and Descriptions of Syrphidae. 



BY W. A. SNOW. 



WITH PLATE VII. 



Among the insects obtained by Prof. F. H. Snow in a recent trip to 

 Colorado, is an excellent representative collection of the Diptera. 

 The material for the following notes on Syrphidae is chiefly drawn 

 from this collection. That such a collection affords so many points 

 of interest in this, one of the best studied families of North American 

 Diptera, is an evidence of the rich field that is presented by this im- 

 portant and little-studied order of insects. 



CALLICERA. 



Gallicera Panzer, Fauna Germanica, 1800. 



Callicera is a small genus hitherto supposed to be peculiar to 

 Europe. The species are found in the high mountains, where the 

 males are often taken while hovering in the air. The present collec- 

 tion includes numerous specimens of a species taken near the summit 

 of Mt. Deception, in Manitou Park, Colorado, at an altitude of nine 

 thousand feet. 



The occurrence of members of this genus in the western part of the 

 United States is a fact of especial interest and further substantiates 

 the rule that American forms common to Europe are more apt to 

 occur in the western regions. Arctophila flagrans Osten Sacken, is a 

 case precisely similar to the present one, belonging as it does to a 

 small European genus of mountain flies, and described from Colorado. 



As the genus is a new one to our fauna, I here give an amended 

 transcription of the generic characters from Schiner's Fauna Austriaca, 

 to include the new species, which differs only in unimportant details. 

 Oallicera. 



Rather large, stout, green or black species with metallic lustre and 

 abundant, long pile. Head hemispherical, somewhat broader than 

 the thorax. Antennae porrect, longer than the head, somewhat re- 

 mote at their base, inserted upon a protuberance of the front; first 

 joint sometimes elongate; second joint shorter than, or as long as, the 

 first joint; third joint one to three times the length of the first two 

 joints taken together, with a short, terminal style. Face broad, under 



(12,) KAN. UNIV. UUAK., VOL. I, NO. I, JULY, lSy2. 



