114 
Psyche 
[April 
THE NORTH AMERICAN VARIETIES OF VOLUCELLA 
BOM BY LANE LINN. 
By Charles W. Johnson. 
Boston Society of Natural History. 
My paper entitled, “The Volucella bonibylans Group in 
America” (Psyche, 1916, vol. 23, p. 159-163), was written 
primarily to encourage a study of this group and of their relation 
to the various species of Bombus or Bremus. My system of 
naming in the above paper might deserve some criticism from 
a strictly nomenclatorial standpoint. I have therefore in the 
following table and notes endeavored to correct an error and to 
make more clear my views on the relationship of these various 
forms. 
Volucella facialis Will, cannot be satisfactorily separated 
from the var. plumata of Europe, but as the typical bombylans 
is absent in America, it seems best to recognize facialis as a sub- 
species. I am also considering the eastern evecta and the Labrador 
arctica as subspecies, and the other forms as varieties of these 
subspecies. 
The question naturally arises, are these variations worthy of 
distinct names, especially when European authors have placed 
twenty-four names (including the American evecta, sanguinea and 
facialis ) in the synonomy under bombylans ? Ignoring variation, 
when it exists in such a widely distributed species, does little to 
encourage a study of this most interesting syrphid. If certain 
forms do actually resemble the species of Bombus in whose nests 
it is commensal, then a knowledge of the possible limits and dis- 
tribution of these variations is essential for a biological study, 
Table of subspecies and varieties. 
1. Face yellow, with yellow pile 2 
Face black or dark brown, with yellow pile 3 
2. Dorsum of the thorax and the pleura black pilose, third 
abdominal segment black pilose (Calif, to Alaska) 
subsp. facialis Will. 
