OSTEN SACKEN ON WESTERN DIPTERA. 19& 



Platyura sp. — San Rafael, April 12 ; venation like tab. xix, f. la, 

 of the Monograph of the European Mycetopliilidce by Winnertz. 



Platyura sp. — Fossville, Napa County, Cal., May 7. Large red 

 species, with the apex of the wing and a central cloud brown; the ante- 

 rior branch of the second vein connects it, in the shape of a cross-vein r 

 with the latter part of the first vein. 



Boletina sp. — Yosemite Valley. 



Sciophila, 2 species. 



Docosia sp. — Yosemite Valley, June 8; venation exactly like Win- 

 nertz's tab. xx, f. 23<x. 



Mycetophila sp. — San Rafael, Cal., April. Of the group of the 

 European M. lunata, and very like it. 



Exechia sp. — Yosemite Valley. 



Gnoriste MEGrARRHiNA n. sp. — Proboscis nearly as long as the body, 

 filiform. Length of the body, 7 mm ; of the proboscis 5.5 mm ; face deep 

 velvet-black, opaque; antennae brown, second joint somewhat reddish; 

 proboscis brown ; vertex black, with a slight gray pollen; thorax brown- 

 ish-yellow, with three black stripes on the dorsum, the intermediate 

 geminate ; halteres pale yellow ; legs yellow ; tarsi iufuscated ; wings 

 with a slight yellowish tinge ; a light gray shadow along the hind mar- 

 ! gin, beginning at the apex. 



Sal). — Yosemite Valley, June 10. — One specimen. 



Although the proboscis of this species is much longer than that of the 

 European G. apicalis, they agree in all essential characters, and there 

 I is no necessity for establishing a new genus. G. megarrhina has the 

 venation of G. apicalis (Winnertz, 1. c, tab. xx, f. 16) ; only the proxi- 

 mal end of the fork of the fifth vein is a little nearer to the root of the 

 wing, and the costa is prolonged a little beyond the tip of the second vein. 



Family BLEPHAROOERID^E. 



The new species which I describe is the tenth now known species of 

 this remarkable family, — remarkable for its exceptional characters ; for 

 the paucity of the species, scattered through the most distant parts of 

 the world; and for the variety of generic modifications which these spe- 

 cies show in preserving at the same time with wonderful uniformity the 

 very striking family characters, some of which are unique in the whole 

 order of Biptera. Among those ten species, three belong to the United 

 States; one I found abundantly in a locality near Washington, D. C; 

 the second was discovered by Lieut. W. L. Carpenter in the Rocky 

 Mountains; the third, described below, comes from Yosemite Valley. 

 A list of the known species of the family, in chronological order of pub- 

 lication, with the locality of each, may find its place here: — 



Blepharocera fasciata (Westw.), in Guerin-Meueville, Magaz. de Zool., 

 1842. — Albania, in Europe. 

 I Liponeura cinerascens Loew, Stett. Entom. Zeit., 1844. — Europe. 



Apistomyia eJegans Bigot, Ann. Soc. Entom.de France, 1862. — Corsica 



