DESCRIPTION OP THE SPECIES. 281 



Dingy red or brown, head large, thoracic dorsum, tibiae, and tarsi clay- 

 yellowish ; wings obtuse, brownish-black, covered with small, mode- 

 rately limpid drops; a triangular indentation on the costa contains a 

 brown comma; a narrow border along the apex and a dense cluster of 

 drops near the tip of the sixth vein, are hyaline; the third longitudinal 

 vein is bristly ; scutellum with two bristles ; ovipositor conical, not 

 flattened. Long. corp. £ cum terebra 0.32—0.34; long. al. 0.30—0.31. 



Syn. Trypeta comma Wiedemann, Auss. Zweifl. II, p. 478, 4. 

 Acinia comma Macquart, Dipt. Exot. II, 3, p. 229, 6. 

 Trypeta comma Loew, Monographs, etc., I, p. 93. Tab. II, f. 28. 



This conspicuous species was described by Wiedemann from a 

 very pale-colored specimen, which I have had occasion to 

 examine. The coloring varies from a clingy brick-red almost to 

 dark brown ; the abdomen especially is often dark. The large 

 head is yellow ; the front is more than half as broad as the head, 

 usually of a darker yellow ; the usual bristles upon it are brown 

 or brownish, weak, and rather short. Antennas clay-yellow, very 

 short, not even reaching to the middle of the face. Face per- 

 pendicular, very little excavated; oral opening of a very moderate 

 size, and the anterior edge of the mouth not projecting ; ocular 

 orbits very broad. Eyes elongated, but the cheeks of a consider- 

 able breadth, although by far not equalling those of the preceding 

 species ; the pile upon them is brownish or brown, sometimes 

 paler ; proboscis short, not geniculate ; the clay-yellowish 

 palpi broad, reaching to the anterior edge of the oral opening. 

 The upper side of the thorax covered with a thick clay-yellowish 

 pollen and with short, dense clay-yellowish pile; the latter some- 

 times has a more ferruginous tinge ; the usual bristles of the 

 thoracic dorsum are brown and weak; upon its middle there are 

 only two pairs, the anterior one very much behind the transverse 

 suture ; it is weaker and shorter than the posterior one. Scu- 

 tellum dark brown, very convex, with only two bristles. Meta- 

 thorax and pleurae are sometimes briek-red, sometimes brown or 

 blackish-brown; the darker the pleurae are, the darker the bristles 

 upon them. Abdomen unicolorous, brick-red, brown, or brown- 

 ish-black, with rather delicate blackish or black pile. Ovipositor 

 not compressed, conical, about as long as the last two abdominal 

 segments taken together, with delicate black pile ; in paler spe- 

 cimens the ovipositor is red, the extreme tip only black ; in very 

 dark specimens it is black with a reddish crossband upon the 

 middle. Yery dark specimens have blackish-brown femora; their 



