DIPTERA BRASILIANA. 



BY S. W. WILLISTON. 



PART III. 



A NEW GENUS OF BLEPHAROCERID/E. 



The Blepharoceridae are one of those families of diptera whose wide 

 structural variations and geographical distribution render of especial 

 interest. Baron Osten Sacken's recent resume of the known forms* 

 gives only fourteen or fifteen as the entire number hitherto described: 

 "Half a century has elapsed since the first species of the family was 

 described; Asthenia fasciata Westwood, in Guerin's Magazin de 

 Zoologie, 1842, Insectes, plate 94. Since then the number has 

 gradually risen to thirteen described and two as yet imperfectly known 

 species. Six of the thirteen belong to Europe, one to Asia, four to 

 North America, one to South America. The two imperfectly 

 described species are the two Paltostomae from South America and 

 Mexico." It has only been very recently that I have become acquain- 

 ted with the family /// natura. Several specimens of a species of 

 Paltostoma from the West Indies, which I have examined, seem to be 

 different from P. superbiens Schiner, and may belong to the species 

 referred to by Osten Sacken as occurring in Mexico. A full descrip- 

 tion, with figures, will be given of them at an early date. At present I 

 wish to describe a new species from South America, which requires 

 the erection of a new genus. 



SNOWIA.-gen. nov. 



Female. No incomplete vein near the posterior margin. Proboscis 

 short. Hind tibiae with well-developed spurs. Ungues simple. Ocelli 

 present. Front broad. Antennae composed of fourteen joints, closely 

 united, the first two larger than the others. Proboscis directed down- 

 wards, a little longer than the vertical diameter of the head; palpi 

 slender, about as long as the proboscis, apparently composed of four 

 joints. Neuration nearly as in Hapalotlirix Loew, as figured by Loew, 

 Zeitschr, f. Entomol. n. Folge, H. vr, pi. 1, fig. 8a, save that 

 there is a strong, oblique cross-vein connecting the fourth vein before 



*Berl. Entom. Zeitschr. xxxvi, p. 407, I8i*2. 



(119) KAN. UNIV. gUAK.. VOL.1., NO. .3, JAN., 1893. 



