41 



BBB-KILtEn. A NEW INSBCT. ITS CLASSIFtCATlOlt ARB KABB. 



13. Nebraska Bee-killer, Trupanea Apiuora, new species. (Diptera/ 

 Asilidaj.) Plate 4, fig. 7. 



Killing the honey bee in Nebraska; a large slcnder-bodiad two-wingod fly, an inch long. 



Whilst we are occupied in closing this Report to place it in the printer's 

 hands, July, 1864, a new insect comes under our examination, of such an 

 interesting- ciiaracter that we herewith present a figure of it, and the fol- 

 lowing account, the principal portion of which We have also communicated 

 to the CotuUry Genlleman, 



R. 0. Thompson, Esq., Florist and Nurseryman, in a note dated Nursery 

 Hill, Otoe county, Nebraska, June 28tli, 1864, says: "I send you to-day 

 four insects or animals that are very destructive to the honey bee, killing 

 a great number of them, and also of the Rose bugs. What are they ? 

 Many wish to know what this Bee-killer is. Is it the male or the female 

 that has the three-pronged sting ?" 



The specimens, two of each sex, laid between pledgets of cotton wool in 

 a small pasteboard box and forwarded by mail, came to hand in good con- 

 dition, admitting of a very satisfactory examination. They are a large 

 two- winged fly, having a long and rather slender and tapering body, about an 

 inch in length, with small Ihrec-jointed antennsB, the last joint being 

 shorter than the first, and giving out from its end, and not from its side, 

 a 8lend(;r bristle. The ends of its feet are furnished on the underside with 

 two cushion-like soles, and the crown of its head is hollowed out or concave, 

 and in this hollow is seen three little glassy dots or eyelets. These charac- 

 ters show it to pertain to the order Dii»tera, and to the group which Lin- 

 ntEus a century ago separated as a genus, under the name Aailus, but 

 •which is now divided into several genera, forming the family AailidcB. 

 On inspecting its wings we sec the two veins which end one on each side 

 of the tip of the wing are perfect and unbroken, and towards the middle of 

 the outer one they are connected together by a small veinlet or short 

 transverse vein. This indicates these flies to pertain to the genus named 

 Trvpanc'a by Afacquart. 



About a half dozen species inhabiting the United States and pertaining 

 to this genus have been described by Wiedemann, Say, and others. This 

 Nebraska fly appears to be diflerent from either of those, and 1 am, there- 

 fore, led to regard it as a new insect, hitherto unknown to the world. And 

 a more appropriate name cannot be given it than that by which it is called 

 by Mr. Thompson and his neighbors, the Bee-killer or Trupanea Apicora. 

 The general definition of this species, or its brief essential characters will 

 be, that it is dull black with the head yellow, the fore body butternut brown, 

 the hind body on its underside and the legs pale dull yellow, the thigha 

 being black on their foresides, and it is coated over with hairs which are 

 gray in the female and grayish yellow in the male, the end of the body in the 

 latter sex having a conspicuous silvery white spot. 



In this Asilus group of flies the species are separated from each other 

 by marks which are often very slight and obscure. It is, therefore, im- 

 portant that a detailed description of these Nebraska flics should here bo 



