Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

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Frank M. Hull.
Descriptions of Some New Species of Syrphidæ.
Psyche 48:149-165, 1941.

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New Species of Syrphidas
DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME NEW SPECIES OF
SYRPHIDB
BY FRANK M. HULL
University of Mississippi
This paper is a continuation of studies begun several years ago on the Syrphid flies in the collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, which I have been privi- leged to study through the courtesy of Professor Nathan Banks. In the paper are included notes and descriptions of recent additions to this large collection. Syrphus melanostornoides n. sp.
Male. Length 9.5 mm.
Head: eyes touch for length of vertical triangle. Vertex,
front and face dark shining black or brownish, the front above the shining bare callosity over the antennae brownish pollinose. The face, except for the shining tubercle and a narrow stripe running upward to the antenna, pale brown- ish, white pollinose. Cheeks and edge of oral margin, except in front, brownish yellow to fulvous. Tubercle of face rather prominent with considerable concavity below the antennae. Pile of vertex and front black. Pile on upper face dark, on lower face white. Occipital pile white up to angle of excavation. Antennae short, entirely black; first and second joints subequal, third not quite as long as first two combined.
Arista thickened on basal four-fifths, bare. Eye facets slightly enlarged. Thorax: dark shining brown or black, rather convex on the dorsum; pile quite long, sparse, very slender, dark in color. Pile on scutellum simi- lar but even longer. Ventrally directed fringe of pile on scutellar margin pale colored. Mesopleurae and an area on the dorsal suture with a band of conspicuous yellow pollen, which is pale pilose. Halteres and squamae light brown; lower lobe bare. Humeri and metasternum bare. Abdo-



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150 Psyche [December
men; black, obscurely shining. First segment metallic, the segment with a small semicircular yellow brown spot, its round side directed medianly, outer side straight. Third and fourth segments similar but with larger spots, except those on the third are more nearly triangular and the rounded angles again are medial, but the greatest length of the spot is vertically arranged on the segment; the spot on the fourth segment in contrast to the third, is placed trans- versely, but is angular-the angle placed medially. None of the spots touch the sides, and all are widely interrupted. The spots of the second segment may be wanting and on the fifth segment there may be more traces of yellow. Pile of abdo- men long on the sides, pale in color, almost wanting on the surface but the surface is thickly beset with black, appressed, very short hair or bristles. Sides of abdomen parallel, much inrolled. Legs: black, tarsi very dark brown, extreme base of fore tarsi and apex of femora light brown. Wings: pale brown, stigma darker.
Female. Length 9 mm. Front shining black, on the lower part brown pollinose, with a faint median groove. Long pile of abdomen, thorax and scutellum wanting. Abdominal spots apparently wanting.
Eleven males from Tjibodas, Mt. Gede, Java, 9,000 ft. (Bryant and Palmer) ; one male, Seliban River, Mt. Apo, Mindanao, Sept. 17 ,C. S. Clagg) . I place here provisionally, two females, Pangrango Mt. Java, 9000 ft. (Bryant and Palmer). Type and paratypes in Museum of Comparative Zoology. Paratypes also in the author's collection. Baccha banksi n. sp. (Plate 10, Fig. 4)
Male. Length 10-12 mm.
Head: eyes touch for more than the length of antennae. Vertical triangle a very acute triangle, rather convex, an- teriorly opaque black, shining posteriorly. Ocelli crowded
into anterior part. Eyes cut away behind the vertex leaving the occiput at mid-vertex and on either side unusually thick. Pile in the midline of vertex thick, short, black, but immedi- ately on either side becoming longer and white. Front rather
convex ; pile short, sparse, black. Antennae quite short, third joint rounded, all of a brownish yellow color. Arista




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19411 New Species of Syrphidse 151
darker, basally thickened. Facial tubercle fairly prominent, quite pointed ; it and a widening stripe upward to antennae shining- black, A large triangular spot or callosity above antennae, enclosing on each side a small yellow spot, shining black. Remainder of face and cheeks bright shining yellow, with a trace of white pile on the former. Mid occipital ex-
cision large and conspicuous. Thorax: black, moderately shining with suggestions of four narrow brown pollinuse vittse. Pleura vitreous black with sharp, pale yellow spots continued as a narrower stripe on the dorsal suture. Scu- tellum pale yellow, dully shining, narrowly black in the cor- ners. Pile of dorsum erect, microscopically short, except for the anterior collar of pile. No ventral scutellar fringe. Abdomen: slender and elongate, terminal segments two and one-half times as wide as second. The second segment scarcely constricted anywhere; six times as long as wide. First segment black, ita sides basally yellow. A suggestion of a small brown spot on the black second segment on each side of the middle. Remaining segments dark brown or black, shining, with yellow brown marks; on the third, on either side, a wide acute V, its sides thick, its ends sharp. On the fourth segment a long slender vertical spot near the midline on either side and lateral to this a shorter anteriorly placed, elongate spot. Posterior margin of fifth segment yellowish brown. Hypopygium long, nodular, rounded at tip. Abdomen thickly, short, black, bristle-covered. Ab- domen larger than wings. Legs: coxas and trochanters brown, femora black to brown, with apices narrowly yellow. Fore tibiae dark brown, apices and base yellow; mid and hind tibiee entirely dark, except basal third which is yellow. Tarsi brown, fore and mid basitarai yellow. Pile of legs short, black. Mid femora slightly thicker than post femora. Wings: hyaline, whole marginal cell brown, whole costal cell yellow.
Female. Quite similar to male. Costal cell brown. Black of the face ascends to vertex, leaving each side of front nar- rowly yellow.
One male and one female, Bella Vista, Panama (Nathan Banks). Type male, in the collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Paratype female in the collection of the author.




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152 Psyche [December
This species traces to B. brevipennis Schiner in Dr. Curran's key.
Chrysogaster gewgaw n. sp. (Plate 10, Fig. 11) A small species obviously related to Chrysogaster shan- noni Cur. and to C. neotropica Shannon. Characterized by its yellow tibia and basal two tarsal joints and glittering greenish silver color with its four copper stripes on the thorax. The third antennal joint is shorter than in shannoni, the front not so long, besides other differences. The wing picture, eye maculation and yellow tibiae distinguish it from neotropica.
Male. Length 4 mm.
Head: eyes actually touching for a very short distance, but appear to be contiguous for the length of the vertical triangle, or length of second antennal joint. Vertical tri- angle considerably elevated, slightly longer than wide. Front short, not as long as second joint of antennae, deep coppery brown, greatly pitted and rugose. The rug= continue to be prominent and transverse on the sides of the shining cop- pery face, except that there is a vertical smooth unwrinkled band running from below antennae to the base of the oral prominence. Oral margin in front produced as a small rounded knob, excavated deeply and sharply above; in this respect it must resemble shannoni Curran. Eyes marked with two vertical bands, looped and folded in a way suggest- ing a bow-knot. Occipital rim or margin very narrow, prac- tically absent. Cheeks narrow. Antennae light yellow, dark brown on the third joint just past arista. Arista pale, ex- tremely delicate, basally thickened and reaching just past third joint. First joint not half as long as second; second and third joint subequal. Pile of face sparse, quite short, pale, inconspicuous. Thorax: rich, coppery, finely rugose with four prominent dark brown vittae and traces of another on each outer margin. Scutellum coppery, finely punctate or wrinkled, its rim faintly impressed, its edge rounded but slightly squared. Pleurae coppery. Halteres pale brown. Abdomen: disk of abdomen dull shining brown. Sides of abdomen (and the hypopygium especially so) glittering, brassy in color. Legs: all the femora, except their narrow



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19411 New Species of Syrphidse 153
yellow apices, glittering brassy in color. Tibiae and tarsi, except the last three tarsal joints, pale yellow. Wings: with brown spots in the cross veins, in the middle of the marginal cell, middle of first posterior cell, tip of third longitudinal vein and a prominent cross band running down the wing from the termination of second longitudinal vein. Two males, Soledad, Cuba, May 24, 1925 (George Salt). Type in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Lathyrophthalmus obtusus n. sp.
Male. Length 10 mm.
Head: upper facets enlarged, touching for twice the width of the vertical triangle, the latter nearly equilateral, much elevated. The ocelli standing out conspicuously. Front gently convex, dark brassy brown, with yellow-grey pollen, bare in the center. Antennae situated about the middle of head, entirely light brown. Arista similarly colored, bare, two and one-half times length of third joint. Face with a small oval knob, bare, gently concave below antennae, brassy black in color, densely yellow pollinose. Cheeks shining and bare, except for a narrow pollinose stripe. Spots of eyes small, two to three times as far apart as wide, clustered into an obscure horizontal band about the middle. Thorax: bril- liant brassy or coppery with four yellow pollinose vittae and a fifth exceeding narrow medially, the three central ones connecting with a transverse band before scutellum. Scu- tellum shining, varying from light yellowish brown on its rim to dark at base. Pile of thorax and scutellum upright; long, yellowish and black hairs intermixed. Pleurae bears a conspicuous diagonal stripe, pollinose, from before wing toward fore cox= and a spot high above mid coxse. Abdomen: opaque black, first segment brownish yellow, blackish in middle and narrowly on posterior edge. Second segment with two large yellow spots on basal edge, their hind borders convex and meeting centrally. Posterior border narrowly shining. Third segment and fourth with narrow diagonal yellow pollinose stripes not interrupted; posterior borders and lateral margins of these segments widely shining to metallic. Legs: femora shining black with apices narrowly yellow. Tibiae and tarsi light yellow, distal ends of tibiae



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154 Psyche [December
dark brown, mid tibiae less so,
hind tibiae entirely dark
brown except the narrow base. Tarsi yellow except last three black joints of hind tarsi. Wings: hyaline, stigma cream colored, brown at either end.
Three males. Buitzenborg, Java (Bryant and Palmer). Type in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Psuedovolucella apimima n. sp. (Plate 10, Fig. 5) Male. Length 14 mm.
Head: eyes touch for distance equal width of posterior ocelli. Front very short, with narrow median groove or line. Head and f,ace produced deeply but very flat and not pro- duced forward. Antenna1 prominence inconspicuous. Front and face and cheeks light pale brown, pale yellow pollinose, except for bare shining obtuse facial knob and pollinose, darker strips between cheeks and face.
Antennae brown,
third joint half again as long as wide.
Arista twice as long
as third joint, densely plumose, pale brown, its rays long, forty to forty-two above. Eyes bare. Thorax: dull brown, ob- scurely shining, with exceptionally narrow whitish pollinose streaks on the suture. Pile thick, erect, pale, growing bushy on the pleurae. Scutellum reddish yellow to brown, with bushy, dense, long, yellow pile. Squamae and pleurae light brown. Abdomen: light brown on first, second segments and dark blackish on the third and fourth, a brown band formed as two slender wedges on the second segment whose points meet medially and a convex brown band on the base of the same segment. Oln the third segment a single, un- interrupted, yellowish-brown band, narrowly reaching the sides, widest in the middle and placed on the anterior half of the segment. Pile of abdomen very short, appressed, yellow and longer on the base of the abdomen, bushy on the basal corners, yellow on the light bands, black with some yellow hairs on the dark portions. Hypopygium with scat- tered, long, black bristles. Legs: light brown, the hind femora much darker on the outer half. Pile of legs light in color, but sides of hind femora outwardly bear numerous, short, black bristles. Hind femora strongly thickened, greatest past middle, an accentuated concavity ventrally, due to a terminal knob. Hind tibiae basally with a small



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19411 New Species of Syrphidse 155
blunt knob. Wings: tinged with pale brown, darker about the stigma.
One male. Tjibodas, Mt. Gede, Java, 7800 ft., 1909 (Bryant and Palmer). Type in the Museum of Compara- tive Zoology.
A very remarkable resemblance to Eristalis tenax and to a honey bee. It is certainly very close to Shiraki's species mimica. Nevertheless, it appears to me that the hind femora of apimirna are more strongly thickened and incrassate and that the arista has some forty dorsal bristles to twenty-four or twenty-five in mimica, judging by Shiraki's figure. Volucella nitidithorax n. sp.
A large shining black species with yellowish brown face and yellow tinted wings.
It belongs to the V. nigricans
group.
Male. Length 18.5 km.
Head: eyes densely black hairy, the black pile of the vertex twice the length that of the eyes, fine and bristly. Front protuberant, small, black bristly. Antennae and thick
plumose arista orange brown, the third joint small, short, barely longer than broad and tapering quickly to a rounded point. The face has the appearance of being dark shining brown with a wide, shining, brownish-yellow middle stripe from base of antennae to oral margin.
Yellow stripe covered
with numerous fine black bristles interspersed in which are a few pale ones, all beginning just above the tubercle. The tubercle or knob is prominent but flat, leaving the face'deep- ly excavated below the antennae. Occiput black, black pruinose, with very short black pile.
Thorax: and scutellum
shining black, covered on the former with very dense, erect, fine black, bristly hair. There are some quite long black bristles on the upper pteropleurse, sides of thorax and scutel- lum. Humeri dark brown. Abdomen: dorsally and ventrally shining black, covered with thick, short, black bristles, quite appressed, a little longer on fourth and fifth segment. Legs: entirely black, black pilose. Hind femora quite slender. Wings: suffused with yellow. More prominent on the veins and brownish along the posterior terminations of the veins. One specimen, Mt. Apo, Mindanao, Phillipine Islands,



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156 Psyche [December
Mainit River, 6500 ft., Oct. 27 (C. F. Clagg collector). Type in the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Volucella pallidithorax n. sp. (Plate 1, Fig. 8) Female. Length 12 mm.
Head: face descending into a slender cone, quite pointed at apex. The tubercle prominent, leaving a concavity below antennae but apart from the tubercle the profile of the face from antennal base to tip of epistoma is almost perpendicu- lar. Front not wide; nowhere wider than length of third antennal joint, at vertex over three times the width of ocellar tubercle; the ocelli very small and close set. Head every- where, except the posterior occiput, post vertex and above the cheeks, pale shining yellow. Antennae entirely orange brown. Aristal rays long and loose, twenty-one to twenty- two above. Pile of eyes not half as high as vertical pile, the former pale, the latter black, merging into the long, pale, upright pile of lower front. Pile of face short, appressed, sparse, golden. Thorax: pale greenish yellow, a brown pair of stripes medially, stopping well before the scutellum, an outer pair black, interrupted at suture, pointed posteriorly, nearly reaching the scutellum. Pleurae and scutellum pale yellow, the latter translucent with four very long, black bristles on either side not arising from noticeable tubercles. Four similar bristles on posterior calli, one on mesopleurse and four on sides of mesonotum. Abdomen: pale yellow, translucent, a narrow black border posteriorly on the second segment, wider at the angles, with a suggestion of a narrow median streak. There is a wider similar border on the third, with a median black prolongation that reaches the anterior margin of the segment. The fourth segment marked much as the third. The yellow of the third reaches the margin very narrowly but on the fourth reaches the margin in full width; pile of yellow areas yellow, of black areas black. Legs: yellow, the bases of all of the femora, distal fourth of the fore and mid tibiae and greater part of hind tibiae and all its tarsi black. Wings: with a yellowish tinge. One female. Honduras, Rosario Mires. Type in the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Related to V. prescutellaris but the front is yellow, not



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19411 New Species of Syrphidas 157
black, and is partly black pilose.
The abdominal segments
differ.
Phalacromyia bipunctata n. sp.
Male. Length 8 mm.
Head: eyes with upper facets enlarged, contiguous for twice the length of the second antennal joint, densely pale yellow pilose, their pile almost as long as depth of third antennal joint. Antennae pale orange brown, the third joint at least twice as long as wide, rounded at the tip with a slight indication of a dorsal excavation. Arista yellowish with darkened apex and thirteen to fourteen bristles dorsally. Face and cheeks entirely pale shining yellow, the knob small and evenly rounded with a number of short yellow bristles and some longer yellow hair on the sides of the face near the middle. Occiput yellow, yellow pilose. Thorax: dorsum shining light yellow with faint indications of darker vittae, the long, thick, erect pile and the lateral and scutellar bristles all golden yellow. Scutellum with a small brown spot on either side of the flat depression, the basal roughened areas slightly wider than long. Pleurae yellow translucent. Abdo- men: upon the base pale translucent, yellowish brown as far as the middle of third segment where the posterior edge of the light coloration is trilunate. Remainder of abdomen shining brownish or blackish. Legs: all the femora pale brownish yellow except narrowly at the tips, the tibiae brownish, darker apically and the tarsi brownish. Wings: and stigma except a tiny brown spot at the base tinged with greenish yellow.
Female.
Similar, a faintly suggested brown stripe on cheeks, a lunate depression in the middle of the shining yellow front. There is also a suggestion of brown at each basal corner of the scutellum where there is a rugose depres- sion suggesting Volucella chalybescens. Abdomen subtrans- lucent greenish beyond the middle of the second segment. Tibiae and tarsi somewhat more blackish. Several specimens, Pastorea, Paraguay, Jan. 1922 (Donald Wees collector). Type, male, allotype female and paratype in the collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology; three paratypes in the author's collection.



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158 Psyche [December
This species is very similar to Curran's species circe but is distinct I believe, in the different maculation of scutellum and abdomen.
Graptomyza flavorhyncha n. sp. (Plate 10, Fig. 6, 7,9) Male. Length 6.5 mm.
Head: sides of face and front parallel. Upper half of front and vertex shining black with a gentle concavity on the former marked by a lunulate depression on either side. Front above antennae pale yellow. Cone of face long and slender, acute, marked by a narrow shining brown median stripe reaching antenna1 base ; cheeks shining brown. Re- mainder of face shining pale yellow, vitreus. First and second joint of antennas very .short, third very long, flat- tened, tapering quickly from apex to a dorsal point, its upper margin narrowly brown. Remainder of antennae light orange brown.
Arista slender, long, short pilose, black on apical half, yellow basally. Thorax: and pleurae shining dark brown.
Humeri and the front of thorax to and includ- ing coxae, a dorsally confluent spot on anterior mesopleurae in front of wing, lateral calli and a thoracic band before scutellum light yellow. Pile very short, erect, sparse, pale. Scutellum light brown, darker apically, with a curious and perfect oval depression lying transversely, its rim posterior- ly short pilose, the margin of the scutellum with a few long black bristles, similar to others on post calli and sides of thorax. Halteres and squamae yellow. Abdomen: light brownish yellow, subtranslucent, with a wide but dorsally invisible black, continuous, lateral margin. The following black markings occur on the abdomen: the apical border bands on the second and third segments, the anterior edges of which are trimammillate, a median wedge and a posterior point on the fourth segment, together with a rounded dash- like spot on either side of this segment. First segment wholly yellow. Abdomen very convex. Legs: light brown, the narrow base of all femora, apical half of fore tibiae, me- dian band of mid and hind tibiae and fore and mid tarsi black. Hind basitarsi simple. Wings: uniformly yellowish brown. No spurs.
One male, Mainit River, Mt. Apo, Mindanao, Phillipine



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19411 New Specie of Svq~hidz 159
Islandsp 6000 ft., Sept. 14 (C. S. Clagg). Type in the Mu-
aeum of Comparative Zoology.
Graptomyza setigloba n. sp. (Plate 10, Fig. 10) Male. length 6.5 mm.
Head: vertex and front polished, vitreus blue black, the latter with a ~emicircular crease or depression on each side, the convex edge of which it turned to the mid-line. Just above the antenn~ the face, also vitreus, becomes light- brownish yellow and this is the color of all the remainder of the face and cheeks, Face descending into a long pointed cone, covered with .a very few long pale bristIes. Pile of occiput and front pale ; of the vertex black. Eye9 with very sparse pale pile. Antenme, except for a narrow dorsal black band, entireIy brownish yellow to yellowi~h orange outward- ly. Arista long and slender* pale cdored~ ten rayed, the rays on the outer half only. The third joint is vev long and broad and ff at, It is pendulow and practically descend8


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