1953] 
Shaw — New Dipt era 
63 
from Pmjxia is that in Pnyxia there is a snout-like projec- 
tion above the antennae. 
In general appearance, the males of my specimens closely 
resemble those of Pnyxia except for the palpal structure 
and presence of an eye-bridge. The eye-bridge in both sexes 
IS greatly reduced being not over one facet wide in the 
male and possessing a total of eight facets in the female 
In the female most of the facets are located in front of the 
ocelli and they are easily overlooked. 
The systematic position of Pnyxia has been somewhat 
uncertain. Johannsen, 1912, indicated that according to 
Enderlein, this genus would be placed in the Mycetophilinae. 
Edwards, 1925, placed the genus in the Sciophilinae. Frey, 
1942, makes the following statement concerning this genus, 
'‘nicht zu den Sciariden gehdren die Gattungen Pnyxia Joh! 
und Allostooma Schmitz.’’ My conclusions concerning this 
matter are that Pnyxia is a sciarid. The thoracic sclerites 
show that the affinities of the genus are closest to the 
Sciaridae. The reduced eye-bridge in the specimens I am 
naming as a new species of Epidapus is certainly a step 
toward the loss of the eye-bridge in Pnyxia. 
A total of four new species was found in the course of 
study of the specimens. These include Epidapus johannseni, 
Zelmira williami, Bradysia bellingeri and B. farn. Their 
descriptions appear herewith. 
Epidapus johannseni n. sp. 
Male. Length 1 mm., General color dark brown, legs 
and abdomen lighter. Resembles a cecidomyiid in general 
appearance. 
Head. Antennae about 1.5 the length of the body. The 
basal two segments compact, the second bulb-like. The 
flagellar segments, with the exception of the terminal one, 
attenuated at the tip, see figure 1. Antennal hairs more or 
less verticillate. The intermediate antennal segments are 
about 0.16 as broad as long-. The attenuated portion of each 
of the segments is about 0.33 the length of the entire 
segment. Compound eyes sparsely hairy. Eye-bridge present, 
narrow, for the most part possessing a single row of facets! 
