Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

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Article beginning on page 283.
Psyche 6:283-284, 1891.

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JUIY 1Sga.1 PSYCHE. 283
THE LEPTIDAE AND BOMBYLIDAE OF THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. BY LEWIS E. HOOD, SOMERTILLE, MASS.
But few local lists of the Diptera
have been published and until this or-
der has been placed upon a higher
basis by monographic study anything
seems useful that will contribute to our knowledge of the geographical distri-
bution of this neglected group
of in-
sects.
I have considerable material from the
mountains of central New Hampshire
and a list of the Leptidae and Bomby-
lidae are given below ; good series of
several other families are in my posses- sion especially in the Tabanidac, Asili- dae, Empidae, and Trypeticlae which I
shall work up as time allows.
W-hat knowledge I have of the dip-
terous fauna of the White Mt. region
has been gained by the study of the
insects collected during two trips be-
tween the years 1883 and 1887, and
from several small lots of flies obtained from friends by exchange ; supplemen-
tary to these personal collections I have had free access, through the kindness
of Dr. H. A. Hagen, to the rich collec-
tions of Dr. H. Loew and Baron C. R.
Osten Sacken in the Museum of com-
parative zoology in Cambridge, Mass.,
thereby not only being able to deter-
mine my species by direct comparison
but becoming familiar with their series
of New England Diptera.
There is a marked similarity be-
tween the dipterous fauna of the south-
ern portion of the White Mountains,
and that of eastern Massachusetts, but
the species obtained north of Mount
Washington seem to be more local,
with many that are common in Canada ;
the material from the mountain region
is far too incomplete to warrant any
definite conclusions as to distribution
but I add to the list a few notes that
have some bearing on this subject.
At no place did I find the Leptidae
numerous, while certain species of
Bombylidae were well represented by
specimens; many are limited in their
distribution with only one or two that
could be considered cosmopolitan,
Most of my specimens were"col1ected
at North Conway, Bemis, Upper Bart-
lett, Glen Station, Mt. Washington, and
the region around Jefferson.
FAMILY LEPTIDAE.
Triftotricha rufithorax Say. Up -
per Bartlett ; before only recorded from N. Y. westward.
Chrysofila fasciata Say. North
Conway, also at Hollis, N. H.
Chrysofila quadrats Say. North
Conway, Bemis, N. H., eastern Massa-
chusetts and throughout New England.
Chrysofila ' thoracica Fab. One
specimen from near Mi. Lincoln ; I am
not certain of exact locality, and have
specimens from Massachusetts and
Maine.
Leptis W a Loew. A specimen
from the western part of the state




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284 PSYCHE. [July 1892.
agrees in every respect with Dr. Loew's
description but with slight, if it can be called any, facial swelling. Osten
Sacken in his Catalogue gives Illinois
as the habitat of this species. The
present may be a new species but it is
best to wait until other specimens are
received before any special description
is given.
Leptis mystacea Macq. Bemis and
Jefferson, N. H., eastern Massachusetts, Norwich, Conn.
Leptis $umti$ennis Say. North
Conway, Nashua. Osten Sacken states
that this is common in the northern
states, but it has not proved so in my
collecting grounds.
Atherix variegata Walk. A single
specimen from Jefferson collected in
1883.
FAMILY BOMBYLIDAE.
This family is better represented than
the former, especially in the number of
specimens. In his Catalogue Baron
Osten Sacken gives the White Moun-
tains and Maine as the habitat of Exo-
prosopa dorcadion 0. S. in New Eng-
land ; I place the species in this list but as yet I have not received it from New
Hampshire.
Exoposoja dorcadion,O. S.
Bxo~oso$a fascipennis Say. North
Conway ; and I have it from Connecti-
cut.
Bxoproso$a fasciata Macq. Jeffer-
son, Bemis, Nashua; rather rare near
Boston, Mass.
Anthrax lateralis Say. Single speci-
men near Bemis.
Anthrax ni/rricauda Loew. Jef-
ferson ; only a single specimen ; have
never found it before in New England.
Aygyramoeba analis Say. Jefferson,
N. H., Massachusetts, New Jersey, and
in the collection of Mr. J. A. Wright a
specimen labelled "North Carolina "
received from Mr. Morrison.
Argyramoeba $lato Wied. " W.
Mt "? I have a specimen marked "W.
Mt." lately received with other species
in exchange ; it is possible this means
"Western Montana" but I am led to be-
lieve that it is from the White Mountains. Aryyramoeba simson Fab. Single
specimen from the western foothills of
the White Mountains.
BombyZius frateZZus Wied. North
Conway.
BombyZius jfygmaeus Fab. Jefferson.
Bombylius varius Fab. A single
specimen much dam ~ged, obtained near
North Conway, I take to be this species, but the identification is not positive.
Another species of this genus collected
near Jefferson is still unidentified ; it is closely allied to B. atriceps Loew,
but much smaller.
Systropus macer Loew. Upper Bart-
lett.
Epibates fumestus 0. S. In his
Catalogue of American ~i&ra Osten
Sacken gives the White Mountains as
the habitat of this species. I have as
yet never seen a specimen, and it is
probably very rare.
Some species of this family were very
common but it was quite another thing
to catch them, they being approached
with difficulty, seemingly more active
than their brothers in the Bay state.




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PSYCHE.
(Continued from $age 274.)
des plantes at Paris, a $, and the
Philadelphia type of the same at
the Oxford museum, and from my
notes and sketches taken at the time
(1865-66) I can have no doubt that the
two species are identical, an opinion
first advanced by Burmeister (Germ.
Zeitschr. ent., 2,54) and now generally
held. Burmeister's description ap-
peared at least a month before Serville's. That the Brazilian specimen mentioned
by Serville belonged to a different spe- cies is probable both from its geographi- cal separation and because Serville
mentions that the inside of the hind
femora is of a deep blue, which might
have been taken from the Brazilian
specimen but is not true of the North
American species.
This is a characteristic species of the
southern United States, where it ex-
tends everywhere from Florida to
Texas, and ranges as far north as Mary-
land, Pennsylvania (Serville) , and New
Jersey in the east, Illinois as far north as Union County (Thomas) or Rock
Island County (McNeill) where it is
rare, and in the west to Nebraska.
I have specimens before me from
various parts of Florida, Dallas,
Tex., Georgia, North Carolina, Vir-
ginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and
Nebraska.
HIPPISCUS (H.) PANTHERINUS sp. nov.
Pale ochraceous, the head strongly tinged with pale yellow, full and well rounded, only moderately broad above ; vertex trans- versely scabrous behind the scutellum which is broader than long, with distinct and some- what elevated, though sn~oothly rounded
bounding walls which rapidly converge on the sides anteriorly, its front terminated by a transverse and deep foveolate sulcus sepa- rating its body from the frontal costa ; pos- teriorly the bounding wall is slight and a feeble longitudinal carina passes through its posterior half, the floor nearly smooth ; lat- eral foveolae small, subrhomboid, distinct ; frontal costa rather deeply sulcate except at extremities. Antennae fuscous, paler at
base. Pronotum not very stout, the posterior lobe less expanded than usual, the median carina impressed rather than cut by the an- terior sulcus, and the effect heightened by its partial suppression immediately behind said sulcus and the formation of a slight discal scutellum; surface rugose but not promi- nently nor densely, the lateral canthi moder- ately sharp and traversing the principal sulcus ; color ochraceous with a pale yellow oblique stripe on either side of the metazona, broad anteriorly and narrow posteriorly, giving the metazona the appearance of a
greater expansion than it has. Tegmina
dark fuscous with strongly pantherine, trans- -
verse, pallid or yellowish stripes which be- come narrower and fainter in the semipel- lucid apex ; in all cases they are continuous, subequal, and traverse the whole or nearly *?
the whole of the tegmina outside the axillaxy area which is fuscous except for one or two partial bands adjoining those of the area above but separated from them by the clear pale yellow sutural stripe ; an oblique pallid discal stripe follows the descending portion of the ulnar vein connecting the transverse stripes at either end;
darker spots of the
marginal field blackish fuscous and conspic- uous especially in middle of tegmina.
Wings pale lemon-yellow at base with a
rather broad dark fuscous stripe hardly nar- rowing in the upper part of the anal field, but narrowing with great regularity to the anal angle which it reaches, leaving four lobes of the margin intact; separated by a



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