INSECTS OF SAMOA. 



Ornithoctona Sj^eiser. 



The only species of this genus represented in the collection appears to be 

 definitely identifiable. 



Ornithoctona nigricans (Leach).* 



1818. Ornithoniyia 'nigricans Leach, Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural 

 History Society of Edinburgh, Vol 2, p. 558, tab. xxvii, figs. 7-10. 



1903. Ornithomyia {Ornithoctona) nigricans (Leach), Austen, Annals and 

 Mag. Nat. History (7), Vol. 12, p. 263. 



1904. Ornithoctona nigricans (Leach), Speiser, Ann. Mus. Civ. Storia Nat. 

 Genova (3a), Vol. 1, pp. 338-343. 



1925. Ornithoctona magna Ferris, Philijjjnne Journal of Science, Vol, 28, 

 p. 339. (Without description.) 



Previous records. — A widely distributed species, from many hosts in the 

 Pacific Islands and the Oriental Kegion. 



Present record. — Three females, two from Ptilojms loerousii, Vailima, Upolu, 

 Samoa, i.l925 (Buxton and Hopkins), and one from Malololelei, 22.iv.1923 

 (J. S. Armstrong) (Host No. 16a). 



Notes. — One of these specimens, determined in the British Museum, bears 

 the label " Ornithomyia nigricans Leach, det. G. E. Bryant." Since the British 

 Museum collection includes a specimen from Bengal (possibly the type of the 

 species) labelled nigricans in Leach's handwriting, the determination may be 

 accepted without question, and on this basis my Ornithoctona magna (description 

 now in the press, in the Sarawak Museum Journal), found in Borneo and the 



* In all probability the correct designation of this s]}ecms is Ornithoctona plicata (v. Olfcrs). 

 The name Ornithomyia nigricam, Leach, would appear to be a synonym of 0. plicala, von 

 Olfcrs {De Veget. et Anim. Corp. in Corp. Anim. Reperiundis Commentarius, Pars. I, p. 102 ; 

 Bcroliui : 1816), the type of which was obtained in Mauritius. After comparing the British 

 Musounr series of 0. nigricans, Leach, with the original description of Ornithomyia plicata, 

 V. Olf., and with Speiser's redescription of that species (Zeitschr. f. syst. Hym. u. Diptj, " 

 11. Jahrg., pp. 176-177, 1902), I feel satisfied — or as satisfied as it is possible to be without 

 actually examining the type of 0. p)licata — that 0. nigricans, Leach, and 0. plicata, v. Olf., are 

 identical, and in the National Collection the former name has therefore been placed as a 

 synonym of the latter. It may be added that the occurrence, as shown by a specimen in the 

 Paris Museum, of what is undoubtedly 0. nigricans. Leach, on Great Comoro I., which is a long 

 way to the west (north-west) of the type locality of 0. -j^Hcata {i.e. Mauritius), whereas the 

 specimen in the British Museum labelled nigricans by Leach himself was obtained in Bengal, 

 seems to me to form a strong indication of specific identity. — E. E. Austen, 10.vi.l927. 



