Article beginning on page 409.
Psyche 6:409, 1891.

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Psycl^, 1893. Yol. 6. Pla!e 10.




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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,
1 have had the opportunity of exam-
ining specimens of an allied species,
the types of Atro-pharista 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.flavi$ennis 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. flavifennis
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.
At. flavi'ennis otherwise differs from
M. jurinoides in the presence of a pair
of median bristles on the hind margin
of the second abdominal segment. In
M. flavipennis, 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
I have a female of M. flavifennis,
agreeing more nearly with the male in
its antenna1 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




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0
~~~~~~. [March 1893-
is much impaired by a previous paper
of Brauer and Bergenstamm, published
in 1891, and received the latter part of that year, in which some thirty or more
additional, old or new genera are
referred to North America, and which
must conflict more or less with Mr.
Townsend's genera.
I cannot join with Mr. Townsend in
his sweeping condemnation of Brauer
and Bergenstammys work in this family.
The descriptions of these authors are
often involved and obscure, but I believe that patient study, together with ample
material, will, almost always, solve the problems which they contain. Espe-
cially do I think so from the fact that
these authors have given excellent
figures of most of the genera (three
hundred and over) known to them, and
figures are usually more valuable in
this family than extended descriptions.
I by no means wish to affirm my faith
in the validity of many of the characters used by them, but a correct interpreta-
tion of the value of these characters
will be of more service than a multi-
plication of genera.
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.
CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB.
13 January, 1893.
The 175th regular and
17th annual meeting (since incorporation) was held at 1 56 Brattle St.
Mr. S. H. Scud-
der was chosen chairman.
The annual reports of the Secretary,
Treasurer and Librarian were presented.
The following officers for IW were
elected : President, W. H. Ashmead of Wash- ington ; Secretary, R. Hayward ; Treasurer, S. Henshaw; Librarian, S. H. Scudder;
members at large of the Executive Com-
mittee, A. P. Morse and S. H. Scudder.
The annual address of the retiring Presi- dent, Dr. W. J. Holland, on "Communal
cocoons and the moths that weave them" was next read by Mr. Scudder in the absence of the President. In this address Dr. Holland erected the genus Oecura and described the following new species : Oecwa goom
Anuphe clara and A. subsordida.
Mr. S. H. Scudder called attention to a
somewhat similar habit in one of the Mexi- can Pieridae (Eucheiya socialis) described by Westwood.
Mr. H. G. Dyar said that some individuals of Clisiocampa usually remain in the nest and undergo their transformations.
Mr. A. P. Morse, with reference to Clisio- campa, stated that he had seen a Baltimore oriole (Icterus balfimore) open a nest, but that it had considerable difficulty in opening the cocoons contained therein.
Further discussion followed in which all participated.
Mr. A. P. Morse read a short paper record- ing the occurrence of Paroxya atlaatica at Faneuil Station, Mass., last summer and
stated that he had captured there melanistic specimens.
FOREIGN NOTES.-Mr. Charles Brongniart
has succeeded Mr. H. Lucas as assistant at the Paris museum in charge of the arthropods. We regret to record the death of the
veteran German lepidopterist, Dr. Adolph Speyer of Rhoden, the precision of whose work in the study of structure and of geo- graphical distribution has had a good
influence in science.
The eleventh part of Kolbe's Introduction to entomology continues
the internal anat-
omy, dealing with respiration, heat, the fatty bodies and luminosity, and begins
upon the digestive apparatus.




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