VOLUCELLA. 



45 



cc. Wings spotted. 



e. Winga with a quadrate brown spot; abdomen more 



or less metallic posteriorly 18. macula, Wiedem. 



ee. Wings with narrow brown clouds on the cross-veins 



and near the end 17. opinator, sp. n. 



E. Small, thinly pilose species j second vein regular, the marginal 

 cell closed near the costa or narrowly open ; anterior cross-vein 

 situated near the base of the discal cell ; the first posterior cell 

 long; frontal triangle small; the male eyes with enlarged 

 facets above ; face concave and tuberculate, conical ; scutellum 

 with bristles, often impressed before its tip ; no prescutellar 

 bristles. 



a. Scutellum yellow, with a preapical impression and a blackish 

 spot at the tip ; base of the abdomen light transluceut yellow. 

 b. Mesonotum, except the sides_, decp blue-black. 



c. Face with a median black stripe 27. lugens, Wiedem. 



cc. Face without median black stripe 24. Sp. 



bb. Mesonotum wholly reddish-yellow. 



d. Wings with a conspicuous triangular blackish spot near 



the tip in front 22. tympanitis, Fabr. 



dd. Wings yellowish-hyaline, with a minute stigmatic spot. 23. Sp. 

 aa. Scutellum without noticeable black spot at the tip. 



e. Scutellum with a rough, flattened, opaque spot on 



each side ; an impresssion before the apex .... 26. fuscipennis, Maeq. \ 

 ee. Scuteilum convex, without flattened opaque surf ace ; 

 no preapical impression. 

 /. Mesonotum deep black, or metallic violet, with 



the lateral margins yellow 28. purpurifera, Bigot. 



ff. Mesonotum wholly yellow or reddish-yellow . . 25. paltens, Wiedem. 



1. Volucella castanea. ^ ^a^* ^ ] 



Volucella castanea, Bigot, Ann, Soc. Ent. Fr. 1875, p. 476 \ 

 Hab. Mexico, Oaxaca (coll. Bigot % Jaiisco (Schumann). 



A single specimen from Jalisco, the determination of which does not seem doubtful. 



2. Volucella lata. 



? Volucella lata, Wiedem. Aussereur. zweifl. Ins. iii. p. 195 \ 



Volucella (Temnocera) meyacephala, Willist. Synopsis N.-Am. Syrphidse, p. 146 2 (nec Loew). 



A very large, thick-set, yellowish species. Face gently convex and receding, without tubercle, produced but 

 little downward ; light brownish-yellow, clothed with short, chiefly white, hairs ; cheeks of the same 

 colour. Antennas very small ; the third joint scarcely three times as long as wide, almost impereeptibly 

 emarginate in the male, not at all in the female ; arista loosely plumose, nofc twice as long as the joint. 

 Frontal triangle very small, of the colour of the face ; eyes of the male contiguous for a long distance, 

 their upper facets markedly larger than the lower ones. Front of the female long, convex, of the colour 



