254 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



only a slight grayish or whitish pollen is visible under it on the face. I 

 have specimens from Illinois and Kansas. 



4. Systgechus oreas n. sp. — Differs from 8. vulgaris in the third 

 antennal joint being a little broader, the mystax more mixed with fulvous 

 pile, the proboscis longer, the legs darker, the wings more grayish, the 

 covering of pile more dense and of a paler shade of yellow, the ground- 

 color less dark (when denuded), without reddish on the scutellum ; on 

 the average, the size is somewhat larger. 



Male. — The blackish-gray ground-color of the body is entirely concealed 

 (in intact specimens) under a thick covering of pale yellow pile, giving 

 the body an elongated-oval shape, slightly broader about the middle of 

 the abdomen ; face and front clothed with a recumbent fulvous tomeu- 

 tum and erect black pile; mystax mixed of both; some black pile on 

 the vertex ; antennae black, third joint considerably expanded on its 

 proximal half; legs black; femora densely covered with the usual 

 appressed whitish hairs, which conceal the ground-color; tibiae reddish, 

 but clothed with the same whitish pubescence ; the latter part of the 

 tibiae is black, and on the inner side this color extends farther upward 

 than externally; tarsi deep black. Wings with a decidedly grayish 

 tinge, brownish-yellow at the base and in the costal and first basal cells. 

 Length about 10 mm (including the length of the pile at both ends of the 

 body, but excluding the antennae). 



Female. — I have a single somewhat damaged specimen, which evidently 

 belongs here, although it is smaller, and the femora and tibiae, except 

 the tip, are yellowish-red. Length about 8 mm . 



Rob. — Webber Lake, Sierra County, California, July 22-26. Three 

 males and one female. None of my specimens show any reddish on the 

 scutellum. 



Pantaebes no v. gen. 



Belongs to the Bombylina, with a closed first posterior cell, but differs 

 abundantly from Bombylius, Systceclius, and Anastoechus in having three 

 submarginal cells ; the front very broad in both sexes; the antennae re- 

 markably distant at base, and with a much more developed, 2-jointed, 

 terminal style ; the ends of the second vein and of the anterior branch 

 of the third strongly curved and bent forward (as in Ploas and 

 Lordotus). 



In the thickness of its beard, entirely concealing the outlines of the 

 mouth, it resembles Anastoechus, but it surpasses it in the breadth of 

 the head ; its mouth is much smaller. The proboscis is shorter here 

 than in any of the above-named genera, and not attenuated toward the 

 tip. 



Its closest relative, however, is perhaps Mulio (as understood by 

 Meigen, Eur. Zweifl., ii, tab. xvii, f. 26-28), with which it shares the 

 shape of the head, the distant eyes in both sexes, the distant antennae, 

 and the general appearance of the body. But Mulio has the first pos- 



