No, 5.] Parasitic Mnscidce from British India. 9 



parasitic on the Tusser silkworm Anther (za mylitta, Drury, and which has 

 been determinated by the late M. Bigot as Masicera grandis, Walk. 

 This typical specimen (a female) is altogether identical with Crossocos- 

 mia sencarice. Masicera [Tachina) grandis, from East India, as de- 

 scribed by F. Walker in bis Diptera Saundersiana, p. 278; Bigot seems to 

 have overlooked the figure which is added to the description in tabl. vii, 

 fig. 1 (from the genial hand of Prof. Westwood). If he had given atten- 

 tion on this figure, he certainly would have seen that Tachina grandis, 

 Walk., must be a quite other species, differing in the possession of a 

 broader general form, the abdomen being broader than the thorax, in 

 having irregular bristles on the outside of the hind tibise (in the genus 

 Crossocosmia these bristles are fringe-like) in the profile of the head in 

 which the cheeks are as high as the longitudinal diameter of the eyes, in 

 the much shorter antennse, etc.* 



Tachina cilipes, Macq., is undoubtedly a synonym of Crossocostnia 

 sericaricR. It is true that according to Maequart's description the palpi 

 are black, but this can scarcely be considered an objection, since in some 

 of the specimens which I have examined tlie rufous colour of the palpi 

 is very obscure. 



To Professor Mik's description I may add, that the vibrissas are 

 inserted at a short distance above the oral margin, and the anal segment 

 is much shorter than the preceding segments. Only in some of the 

 specimens, which I have seen, the basal joints of the antennse are rufous, 

 in others they are of the same black colour as the third joint. Finally 

 the posterior cross-vein is more or less curved and shows in this respect 

 individual variation. 



2. Crossocosmia biseriata, n. sp. ( ^ ?) 



PI. I, fig. 1. 



Greyish-black ; head white ; frontal bristles in a double row ; thorax 

 with four black stripes ; scutellum slightly rufous ; antennse and legs 

 black; palpi rufous. 



Length 9 millim. 



As this species, though of smaller size, agrees in most of its charac- 

 ters with Crossocosmia sericaria, it may be admitted, at least provision- 

 ally, in the same genus. I observe, however, that it differs in some essen- 

 tial points; for example, in the frontal bristles forming a double row, in 

 the absence of orbital bristles together with the shortness of foot-claws 



* Brauer and V. Bergenstamm (Denkschr. K. Akad. Wissencli. Wieu. LX, p. 184, 

 note 25) suggests that Tachina grandis, Walk., may be the same insect as their 

 JSemorcsa tropidohothra (Denkschr. LVIII, p. 361), a supposition which appears to 

 me a certainty eince I am acquainted with both sexes of the latter species. 



