PSYCHE. NOTES ON TACHINIDAE. BY S. WENDELL WILLISTON, LAWRENCE, KANS. Some years ago, I described (Trans. Amer. ent. soc. xiii, p. 305) a peculiar genus of Tachinidae, under the name Melanophrys. Very recently, I have had the opportunity of exam-ining specimens of an allied species, the types of Atropharista jurinoides Towns., now in the collection of Mr. Aldrich. A rather peculiar combina-tion of characters which these specimens present will render the following notes of interest. In the male of M. Jlavipennis Will., the eyes are conspicuously pilose. In the male of M. jurinoides Towns, the pilosity is inconspicuous ; still hairs can be seen upon close examination. In the females of both species, the eyes are bare even under a searching exam-ination. Hairiness of the eyes is usually considered a generic character in this family ; here it is distinctly sexual. The antennae in the male of M. Jlavipennis have the second joint not more than one-fourth of the length of the third ; in a female taken with the male, the second joint is about three-fourths the length of the third, — it possibly represents a distinct species. In both sexes of M. jurinoides, the third joint is only a little longer than the second. In the male of the former species, there is a considerable pilosity on the thorax and abdomen, wanting in all the other specimens, both male and female. M. Jlavipennis otherwise differs from Af. jurinoides in the presence of a pair of median bristles on the hind margin of the second abdominal segment. In M. Jlavipennis, the color-markings of the front of the male are like those of the females of both species; in M. jurinoides they are conspicuously dif-ferent. The singular thing about the species is that the females are so remarkably alike that one is only assured that they belong to different species by the pair of bristles on the second abdominal segment. This is all the more strange from the fact that the color-markings, as also the structure of the head, are con-spicuously unlike those of allied genera. I should have mentioned the fact that [ have a female of M. flavipennis, agreeing more nearly with the male in its antennal structure. Professor Townsend has recently published a useful table of the North American genera of Tachinidae (Trans. Amer. ent. soc. xix, p. 92, June, '92). Unfortunately its value
BioStor
