no. 2070. PARASITIC AND PREDACEOUS DIPTERA— WALTON. 183 



Genus PHOROCERA Desvoidy. 

 PHOROCERA CLARIPENNIS Macquart. 



The most widely distributed Tachinid to be found on the mesa. 

 Often attracted to one's person, possibly by perspiration, alighting on 

 the clothing and even upon the hands. Varies enormously in size. 

 A series of 50 specimens collected over a wide area and under varying 

 conditions of moisture, etc. Eeared by C. N. Ainslie and V. L. Wild- 

 ermuth from Hemileuca olivise Cockerill in New Mexico. Its percentage 

 of parasitism in some restricted localities is very high on this host. 

 One large female taken on summit of Eagle Tail Mountain, elevation 

 7,500 feet or more, August 3. 



Genus NEOPALES Coquillett. 



NEOPALES (LYDELLA) DORYPHORAE Riley. 



Plate 7, fig. 6. 



A series of 19 specimens collected in prairie arroyo July 20 to August 

 10. In proposing a new genus, namely, DorypJioropTtaga, 1 for the 

 reception of this species Mr. Townsend says: "The eyes are thickly 

 hairy. * * * The intermediate (second and third) abdominal 

 segments bear discal bristles and the ventral carina and curved spine- 

 like piercer, both of ordinary character, are present in the female." 

 Examination of all available material shows these statements to be 

 incorrect in part. The eyes are thickly hairy in the male as a rule, 

 those of the female being so nearly bare in some cases as to require 

 the utmost care in order to see the hairs at all. The intermediate seg- 

 ments of the abdomen seldom bear discal macrochaetse in either sex 

 and are almost invariably absent in the female. The " ventral car- 

 ina" does not exist in the sense that we find it in Compsilurd, Cela- 

 toria, and ChaetopMeps. In these genera there is present a distinct 

 carina or compressed tubercle armed with greatly modified marcro- 

 chaetse forming toothlike spines projecting downward and backward. 



In the species under discussion the carina, though present, is very 

 slightly developed and indeed often concealed entirely, especially in 

 freshly killed individuals. A piercer certainly exists, as Mr. Town- 

 send says, also one of the New Mexican females upon dissection showed 

 the presence of 22 fully developed and 15 undeveloped maggots meas- 

 uring about one-third mm. in length and armed with a long, slender, 

 curved mouth hook and the rows of spines described by Mr. Town- 

 send; until further and more reliable external characters, especially 

 in the case of the male, are discovered, it would seem expedient to 

 retain the species in the genus Neopales (Phorocera of authors) for 

 the present. Figures of the abdomens of this species, figure 6, and 

 Compsilurd concinnata, figure 7, are afforded herewith for purposes of 

 comparison. These are partially diagrammatic in that the minor 

 vestiture is omitted. 



» Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., vol. 14, p. 164. 



