224 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



apicero versus fuscae; tarsi toti fusci ; alse saturate cinereae, stigmate 

 fusco. Long. corp. 2 lin. ; long. al. l|i lin." (About 4.4 and 4.2 mm .) 



" Black, opaque ; antennae, palpi and knob of halteres of the same 

 color. The erect pubescence of the whole body, and likewise that of the 

 palpi and coxae pale luteous-yellow, only that of the frontal tubercle a 

 little darker, so that it looks almost black when held against the light. 

 Femora black, at the tip pale luteous-yellowish ; their short tomentum 

 of an impure whitish. The luteous-yellowish tibiae become gradually 

 brown towards the tip, and the feet are tinged with brown, except some- 

 times at the base of the first joint. Wings with an intense grayish tinge ; 

 the stigma dark brown, of a medium breadth and length: the wing- 

 veins blackish-brown. 



"Hat. — San Francisco (H. Edwards)." 



A species of which I found several males near Los Angeles in March 

 differs from this description in having the pubescence of the body 

 golden-yellow, rather than luteous ; that of the femora likewise golden- 

 yellow ; that of the palpi decidedly black ; the stigma is brown, but 

 not dark brown. 



A specimen from Webber Lake, California, July 24, has longer and 

 less brownish wings, but a darker stigma j first antennal joint with 

 long bristles, which do not exist in the specimens from Los Angeles ; 

 palpi very long; pleurae grayish ; pubescence of the abdomen whitish. 



I cannot identify either of these species with the above description. 



Athebix vabioobnis Loew, Oentur., x, 13. — Female. — I do not 

 know this species. 



Symphobomyia sp. — Half a dozen species which I took in Marin 

 and Sonoma Counties in April and May, and about Webber Lake in 

 July, all have the anal cell open, and therefore belong to the genus 

 Symplwromyia Frauenfeld (Ptiolina Schiner, not Zetterstedt). Cali- 

 fornia seems to be much richer in this group than Europe or the At- 

 lantic States of North. America. But as these species resemble each 

 other very closely, and as both sexes often differ in coloring, I deem it 

 more prudent not to attempt to describe them. 



The female of one of these species which I observed near Webber 

 Lake stings quite painfully, and draws blood like a Tabanus. I am 

 not aw r are of the fact having ever been noticed before concerning any 

 species of Leptidce. 



Family NEMESTRLNXD.E. 



Hirmoneura brevirostris Macquart, Dipt. Exot., suppl., i, p. 101, tab. 20, 

 f. 1, from Yucatan, is the only species of this family hitherto recorded 

 as occurring north of the Isthmus of Panama. I describe a species 

 from Texas, of which I have a single specimen, the only Nemestrinid 

 from North America I have ever seen. This scarcity is the more remark- 

 able, as the regions of Central Asia, which, in other respects, show many 

 faunal analogies with the western plains and California, are very rich in 





