OSTEN SACKEN OX WESTERN DIPTERA. 207 



tip; tarsi brown, except the base, which is paler. Halteres brownish. 

 Wings with a distinct pale brown tinge, somewhat yellowish along the 

 costa : nearly obsolete clouds, visible with the magnifying-glass only, on 

 the central cross- veins and on the bifurcation of the third vein; venation 

 like P. rufocineta. Length, ll-12 uim . 



Hal). — Yosemite Valley, Cal., June 5: Georgetown, Colo. (3,500 feet 

 altitude), August 12. A male and two females. Seems to resemble the 

 European P. scuteUaris. 



P. metaUica Walker from Albany River, Hudson's Bay, may be this 

 species ; but Walker states that the venation differs from that of the 

 other Pty diopter ce, although it does not appear from his explanation in 

 what the difference consists. 



Bittacomorpha clayipes (Eabr.). — A specimen from Oregon in Mr. 

 H. Edwards's collection in San Francisco : other specimens were col- 

 lected in Clear Creek Canon, Colorado, by Mr. J. D. Putnam, of Daven- 

 port, Iowa; near Boulder City, Colorado, by A. S. Packard, June 29.* 



Genus Protoplasta. 



In my Monograph of the Xorth American TipulidaB (Monographs of 

 Xorth American Diptera, vol. iv, p. 309), I established two groups of 

 the section Ptycliopterina, the second of which contains three remarkable 

 and closely allied genera, — Protoplasa (better Protoplasta), from the East 

 ern United States; Tanyderus, from Chili; and ILacrocliile, a fossil form 

 found in the Prussian amber ; all of which with but a single species. 

 These three genera and species differ from the Ptycliopterina of the first 

 group (Pty diopter a and Bittacomorplia) in the following characters : — A 

 subcostal cross-vein is present : the second submarginal cell is much 

 longer than the first ; the number of posterior cells is raised to six, in 

 consequence of the presence of a supernumerary longitudinal vein in the 

 first posterior cell ; collare large. 



I have discovered a fourth species in California, which possesses the 

 general characters of the Ptycliopterina, as well as the particular char- 

 acters of this second group. The characters enumerated below are 

 merely those in which P. vipio differs from the generic characters of 

 Protoptlasta as given 1. c.,p. 316. In judging of their importance, it must 

 [be borne in mind that the original specimens of P. fitclii, at the time 

 when I described them, were old specimens, while I made the descrip- 

 tion of my new species before the specimen had dried. Some of the 

 [minor differences may be due to this circumstance. 



Eyes • finely pubescent ; proboscis together with its large fleshy 

 lips a little longer than the head: antenna lo-jointed, first joint but 

 little longer than the second ; joints of the flagellum elongated, very 

 slightly incrassated on their anterior half, with verticils on the incrassa- 

 l 



I * I discover a slip of the pen in my description of this species : Monographs, ir, p. 

 316, line 2 from top, for brown, read white. 



