108 DIPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. [PART IV. 



formation about the three fossil species may he gathered from the article 

 in the Linncea. As Mr. Loew believed the antennse of his specimens of 

 Toxorrhina fragilis to be injured at the tip (he could count only 2-f-10 

 joints, which is the real number, whereas he expected that they should 

 have 2-(-13, like the fossil species), he introduces the description of the 

 antennae of the fossil species thus (1. c. p. 400) : " I found the antennse 

 of two of the fossil species 2 -\- 13 jointed, while I could count only 12 

 joints on the fiagellum of the third; all the species have the two joints 

 of the scapus short and stout ; the first joint of the fiagellum likewise is 

 rather large and stout, more or less egg-shaped, the following joints are 

 of a similar shape, but smaller; afterwards they become more slender 

 and gradually more elongated ; besides some ver,y short hairs, the joints 

 of the fiagellum have sparse verticillate hairs, which, in all the species, 

 become perceptibly longer on the last antennal joints." Thus, the fossil 

 species, like Elephantomyia, have 15-jointed antennse (an unusual number, 

 as we know, among the Tip. brevipalpi) ; the third joint is strikingly 

 incrassated, and, as I have shown above, represents the coalescence of two 

 joints ; the fossil species, like Elephantomyia, have verticils on all the 

 joints, whereas in Toxorrhina, only the two last joints are provided with 

 long hairs ; the rest of the description of the antennse of the fossil species 

 applies equally well to the antennse of Elephantomyia. Another passage 

 is likewise important : "The venation (of Tox. fragilis) is also peculiar in 

 several respects ; I advert especially to the direction of the veins in the 

 vicinity of the root of the wing and to the connection between the ante- 

 penultimate and the penultimate longitudinal veins ; the latter does not 

 take place in the fossil species in a similar degree ; in these species the 

 first longitudinal vein does not coalesce towards its end with the costa (as 

 it does in T. fragilis) and the great cross-vein is farther removed from the 

 root of the wing." If we compare the statement of these differences 

 between T. fragilis and the fossil species with the differences existing 

 between the Toxorrhina, described below, and the Elephantomyia westwoodi, 

 we will find them confirmed in every particular. What is called the con- 

 nection between the 5th and 6th longitudinal veins, will be shown below 

 (in the genus Toxorrhina) to be merely apparent, and to arise from the 

 close approximation between the basal portions of these veins (compare 

 Tab. I, fig. 6, the wing of Toxorrhina). This appearance does not exist 

 in Elephantomyia (Tab. I, fig. 5), which, like Mr. Loew's fossil species, has 

 the two veins more divergent. The peculiar course of the first longitudinal 

 vein, coalescing, towards its end, with the costa, will also be described 

 under the head of Toxorrhina ; in Elephantomyia westwoodi, as in the fossil 

 species, the mode of junction of the first and second veins is the ordinary 

 one. The great cross-vein, in both Toxorrhinoz described by me, is either 

 at the very basis of the discal cell, or before it ; in Elephantomyia, it is 

 opposite the middle of the discal cell ; again a point of agreement with 

 Mr. Loew's statement about the fossil species. The principal difference, 

 however, between the venation of T. fragilis and the fossil species, con- 

 sisting in the absence of a submarginal cell in the former, is not mentioned 



