1946] 
Fossil Diptera from Florissant 
47 
Apolysis magister, n. sp. (Bombyliidae) 
(Plate II, Fig. 3) 
Length 9 mm. A rather stout, apparently bare species whose 
generic position is indicated by the peculiar antennse and open 
discal cell. Proboscis porrect, twice the depth of the head, palpi 
not preserved nor is the labella. Antennse short, the first two 
joints globular, the first a little larger than the second and neither 
showing any hairs; third joint quadrate and blunt, widening 
below just before the middle, in length equal to the basal joints 
combined, bearing a minute style inserted just above the mid- 
dle of its apex but not in a depression of the joint. Thorax large 
and domed. Abdomen large, conical, showing eight segments 
but the tip of the abdomen is not preserved, the individual seg- 
ments posteriorly with narrow light-colored incisures. From the 
fulness of the abdomen it would seem that the fossil represents 
a gravid female. Legs slender, showing no bristles. Wings uni- 
formly hyaline except that the marginal cell is darker; veins of 
the anterior portion well preserved, those of the hind part of 
the wing very faint and in part impossible to decipher. Two 
submarginal cells present, the second acute and long, the third 
vein forking opposite end of first vein with the branch terminat- 
ing at wing-tip, third vein straight, anterior crossvein before 
middle of wing, discal cell open, confluent with the second pos- 
terior cell, three posterior cells present, the shape of the anal 
cell not recognizable. The species does not show a sign of the 
delicate scattered pubescence characteristic of the modern 
species. 
Holotype and counter type: collected in 1906 by Cockerell, 
Wheeler and Rohwer, at Station 14 (See Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 
Hist., XXIII, Art. IV.) and deposited in the American Museum 
of Natural History. Both halves of the stone show the fossil. 
Paratype: from the R. D. Lacoe collection in the National 
Museum, accession lot number 38575. 
I have carefully looked for the posterior crossvein normally 
at the end of the discal cell, using the binocular microscope 
with every sort of lighting, without success; nor is there any 
angulation evident in the fourth and fifth longitudinal veins to 
indicate a crossvein. The species is therefore to be located in 
the genus Apolysis , which was erected by Loew for a South 
African species which is pictured in the Dipterenfauna Slid- 
