818 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
BEE>KILLER. A HEW INSECT. ITS CLASSIFICATION AND HAMS. 
13 . Nebraska Bee-kii.ler, Trupanea Apivora, new species. (Diptera. 
Asilidae.) Plate 4, fig. 1. 
Killing the honey bee in Nebraska; a large slender-bodied two-winged fly, an inch long. 
Whilst we are occupied in closing this Report to place it in the printer's 
hands, July, 1864, a new insect comes under our examination, of such an 
interesting character that we herewith present a figure of it, and the fol¬ 
lowing account, the principal portion of which we have also communicated 
to the Country Gentleman. 
R. 0. Thompson, Esq., Florist and Nurseryman, in a note dated Nursery 
Dill, Otoe county, Nebraska, June 28th, 1864, says: “I send you to-day 
four insects or animals that are very destructive to the honey bee, killing 
a great number of them, and also of the Rose bugs. What are they? 
Many wish to know what this Bee-killer is. Is it the male or the femalo 
that has the three-pronged sting?” 
The specimens, two of each box, laid between pledgets of cotton wool in 
a small pasteboard box and forwarded by mail, came to hand in good con¬ 
dition, admitting of a very satisfactory examination. They are a large 
two-winged fly, having a long and rather slender and tapering body, about an 
inch in length, with small three-jointed antennas, the last joint being 
shorter than the first, and giving out from its end, and not from its side, 
a slender bristle. The ends of its feet are furnished on the underside with 
two cushion-like soles, and the crown of its head is hollowed out or concave, 
and in this hollow is seen three little glassy dots or eyelets. These charac¬ 
ters show it to pertain to the order Diptera, and to the ^roup which Lin¬ 
naeus a century ago separated as a genus, under the name Asilus, but 
which is now divided into several genera, forming the family Axilidas. 
On inspecting its wings we see the two veins which end one on each side 
of the tip of the wing are perfect and unbroken, and towards the middle of 
the outer one they are connected together by a small veinlet or short 
transverse vein. This indicates these flies to pertain to the genus named 
Trupanea by Macquart. 
About a half dozen species inhabiting the United States and pertaining 
to this genus have Jbeen described by Wiedemann, Say, and others. This 
Nebraska fly appears to be different from either of those, and I am, there¬ 
fore, led to regard it as a new insect, hitherto unknown to the world. And 
a more appropriate name cannot be given it than that by which it is called 
by Mr. Thompson and his neighbors, the Bee-killer or Trupanea Apivora. 
The general definition of this species, or its brief essential characters will 
be, that it is dull black with the head yellow, the fore body butternut brown, 
the hind body on its underside and thejegs pale dull yellow, the thighs 
being black on their foresides, and it is coated over with hairs which are 
gray in the female and grayish yellow in the male, the end of the body in the 
latter sex having a conspicuous silvery white spot. 
In this Asilus group of flies the species are separated from each other 
by marks which are often very slight and obscure. It is, therefore, im¬ 
portant that a detailed description of these Nebraska flies should here bo 
