New Bombylida? From California. 197 



spike, solid and hard, growing directly out of the ground, radiate 

 in every direction long green leaves with sharp spikes at the ends — 

 a hemisphere of rigid, bristling leaves. As the plant approaches 

 maturity, and prepares to bloom, the base broadens and thickens 

 till it has quite a bulbous appearance; when in this condition it is 

 considered eatable by the Indians. Presently the central spike of 

 close-clustering leaves grows taller and thicker, and from the center 

 emerges the flower stalk, very tender and white, with the close- 

 clustered buds so minute as to be scarcely recognizable; at this 

 period of its growth it looks very much like a huge stalk of aspara- 

 gus. The growth of this flower stalk is exceedingly rapid. The 

 faster it grows the faster the flower buds develop, but it is not till 

 the stalk is some five or six feet high that it begins to branch out 

 from the central stem in every direction, and subdivides again into 

 mam r smaller stems, each terminating in a perfect flower. When 

 the plant is in full bloom there is a spike of creamy white flowers 

 two feet across and tapering upward three or four feet to the top, 

 where the delicate green buds are not yet open. The flowers are 

 some two inches across, generally of a delicate cream color, or pure 

 white, not infrequently with a line of green or purple down the 

 center of each petal; instances are not rare where the whole flower 

 is of a rich purple color. In texture the flower is thick and waxen 

 looking. This yucca has the peculiarity of dying as soon as it has 

 flowered, like the agaves. W. F. Parish. 



[Yucca whipplei, common in Southern and Lower California, is 

 better known among the native Californians as the ciote plant 

 (pronounced ke-o-ty), and is also known as the mountain yucca. — 

 Editor.] 



NEW BOMBYLIDJE FROM CALIFORNIA. 



In ' Entomologica Americana' Volume I, pages 115 and 116, I 

 gave a synoptical table of the species of Lordotus known to inhabit 

 North America, and characterized three new species. Since the pub- 

 lication of that paper no new species from this region have, to my 

 knowledge, been described. I give below descriptions of tw T o new 

 species which I collected in Southern California, and present a new 

 table of all the known species of Lordotus from North America: 



1. Scutellum not grooved, rounded behind 2 



Scutellum with a deep, longitudinal groove Canalis Coq. 



2. Wings hyaline, destitute of brown clouds or spots 3 



Wings with apical half of first basal cell (usually), and basal 



half of marginal and of first submarginal cells brown, a 

 brown cloud on the small crossvein and another on the 

 erossvein at base of fourth posterior cell Gibbus Lw, 



