4-16 Southern Bee Killers. 



I have also a fly of the same family, with the same bee- 

 destroying habits, a species of Erax (Fig. 197). In form 

 it resembles the one referred to above. The wing (Fig. 

 ipq), as will.be seen, is quite different in its venation. I 

 received this species from Louisiana. Fig. 198, a, shows 

 the antennse magnified. The Nebraska bee killer, Pro- 

 raachus bastardi, is the same in general appearance as the 

 above. The second vein of the primary wing, not the 

 third, as in case of Asilus, forks. In Erax as seen in the 

 figure, this branch is disconnected. 



There are two other insects of this family, Mallophora 



Fig. 200. Fig. 201. 



orcina and Mallophora bomboides, which differ greatly in 

 form from those mentioned above; they look more like 

 bumble-bees, for which they have been mistaken. 



I have received these insects from several of our enter- 

 prising bee-keepers of the South — Tennessee, Georgia, 

 and Florida — vs^ith the information that they dart forth 

 from some convenient perch, and with swift and sure aim 

 grasp a bee, and bear it to some bush, when they leisureh' 

 suck out all but the mere crust and cast awaj' the remains. 



The insects in question belong to Loew's third group 

 Asilina, as the antennae end in a bristle (Fig. 200), while 

 the second longitudinal vein of the wing (Fig. 202 b') 

 runs into the first (Fig. 202, a). 



The genus is Mallophora. The venation of the wino-? 



