1944] Studies on Syrphid Flies 35 
and which more closely agrees in size and black pleurae with the 
description of cothurnatus and is so close to the present species in 
type of wing pattern and general coloration and triangularly 
pointed hypopygium that the general similarity between the two 
is remarkable. Nevertheless they are abundantly different in 
many respects. It is worth noting that the description of cothur- 
natus by Sack in the revision of the genus disagrees from Bigot’s 
description in the particulars of the color of the tarsi. Sack de- 
scribes the hind tarsi as wholly yellow and the anterior tarsi 
yellowish with the three last tarsal joints black. 
Microdon aureus n. sp. 
Related distantly to beebei Curran, but characterized by its 
golden pile. 
Female. Length 19.5 mm. which includes the 4 mm. antennae; 
wing 11.5 mm. Head: vertex and upper occiput dark, shining, 
metallic green, becoming more or less opaque black on a trans- 
verse band in front of the scutellum from eye to eye. Front very 
shallowly concave, the antennae situated high upon the head with 
very short front. Pile along the upper part of the occiput ex- 
clusive of post vertex, very short, appressed, brassy yellow. Pile 
behind vertex longer, upright, black; immediately about the ocelli 
it is short, appressed, black. Upon the front there is a black 
pilose area upon an opaque black band; just in front of the 
opaque black band is a transverse band of pale brassy pile, its 
anterior border directed forward, its posterior border directed 
backward and culminating in each eye margin in a fan-like tuft 
of flat-lying, similarly colored pile that is directed towards the 
mid-line. Pile of face, except for a black area on the eye margins 
of the lowest part of the front everywhere pale golden, short, 
flat-lying and wiry. A tuft of black hairs is directed downward 
over the middle of the epistoma. There is a vertical band of pale 
pile on either side of the mid-line of the face, a transverse band 
from the eye margin to the anterior margin of the epistoma; there 
is also a rough, rounded area below the antennae on each side, 
which is covered by a downward and somewhat obliquely directed 
area of pile running from the base of antennae towards the eye 
margin. Face everywhere shining black except for a mere sug- 
gestion of a light colored spot on each side near the middle and 
near the eye margins. Antennae elongate, quite slender, the third 
joint barely longer than the first two, the second joint not quite 
