Article beginning on page 331.
Psyche 8:331, 1897.

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ON THE GENUS THLIPSOGASTER ROND,
BY S. W. WILLISTON, LAWRENCE, MASS.
In the Transactions of the American
Entomological Society for March, 1895,
p. 108, Mr. Coquillett referred to this
genus of Rondani two American species,
T. ater Coq. which I have before me
from Mexico, and T, syndesmus Coq.,
which I have seen from Kansas. A
careful examination of the literature
assures me, however, that there is no
real relationship between our species
and the types of Thlipsogaster, Whether
or not the species described by Mr.
Coquillett and several other allied ones known to me should receive a new gen-
eric name is a question that I will leave in abeyance. The only real difference
from Bombylius which they present is
in the first posterior cell of the wings being closed in the margin instead of at some distance from it. Apparently ad-
ditional characters are found in the
peculiar markings of all the known
species ; all of them, for instance, pos- sessing a silvery spot near each eye at
the base of the antennae. Were these
characters confined to such species as
present the neurational character, I
should not hesitate to give the genus an- other name. Unfortunately, however,
such species as Bombylius lugnbris Loew, and B. ater Lin., especially the latter, seem to have very similar markings,
though the first posterior cell is closed remotely from the margin. As T. afer
Coq. must be retained in the genus
Bombylius for the present, at any rate,
the specific name Copilktti may be
substituted in order not to conflict with B, ater Linn. .
My reasons for rejecting Thlipso-
gaster Rond, for these species are as
follows :
Thlipsogaster Rond. was separated
from Thlipson~yza Wiedemann in a very
imperfect way as follows : " A1 genero
fondata dal Wiedman per una specie
Affricana furono aggiunte altre due
parimenti dall' Affrica dal Macquart,
ma diversi caratteri di queste non com-
binano con quelli della prima, per man-
iera che si rende necessaria la lor0
separazione almeno in due generi."
'< AA. Alarum areolae submargin-
ales duae tantum. *
*
BB, Venae longitudinales alae
qninta et sexta [tertia et
quarta] sejunctim marginem
alae attingentes vel vix in ips0
contiguae.
G. Thlypsogaster Mihi.
Cont. Sp. Castanea et Heter-
optera Macq." *
In all probability Rondani had not
seen these species when he erected
the genus, but took the characters
from Macquart. Turning to Macquart t
ĺ´Arch perLla Zool. 1863, p. 72.
tDipt. Exot. ii, I, 3.2 and 113.




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332 PSYCHE. [March 1899.
we find the following characters as-
signed to them : '' T&e aussi large que
Ie thorax " (p. 32). " Ce genre [Thlip-
somyza], dont Ie caracthe Ie plus ap-
parent est l'abdomen comprime et muni
de soies sur les borcls des segments, a
pour le type le T. compressor Wied.,
Bombylius id., Fab., d' Alger. Nous y
joignons deux esptees no~~velles, kale-
ment du iiord de I'Afrique, dont l'une,
le T. hetetdptera, difffire des autres par la premiftre cellule postferieure ouvertc. Ces Bombyliers se clistingiient encore
des autres par les soies qui bordent les segments de l'abdomen."
Of 1: cas/a7nea, he says : " C'est peut- etrg une variYt6 du T. compressa."
In his specific descriptions, Macquart
gives a quite different type of coloration for his species, and in his figure of
T. heteroptero the bristles of the abdo- men are conspicuously indicated. Fur-
thermore, the abdomen, like the whole
body, is bare and elongated. All of
these characters are so " himmeheit"
from the Bombylius type, to use Wiede-
inann's own expression, that one is sur- prised that the identity of our forms
should have occurred to Mr. Coquillett.
It is interesting to observe that both
Schiner and Loew refused to accept
Amictus Wied. as being distinct from
Thlipsomyza, based as it was chiefly
on the open or narrowly closed first
posterior cell, the sole character assigned to Thlipsogaster by l<ondani. Euryca-
renus Loew seems to be a nearly allied
genus.
The moral of it is that Rondani's
genera, like Walker's species, are to be accepted with fear and trembling.
ARKANSAS MELANOPLI - I.
BY JEROME MCNLILL, FAYETTEVILLE, ARK.
The recent publication of Scudder's
excellent Revision of the Mclanopli
by making it possible to recognize
with certainty those species which have
already been described suggested the
propriety of placing on record the
species of this group which are known
to occur in Arkansas. This seemed to
be the more desirable because almost
nothing is known of the Orthopteran
fauna of this State. The list here given is undoubtedly very far from complete
as the collections upon which it is based have been made almost entirely in the
seven or eight counties of Northwestern
Arkansas. Altogether nineteen species
representing six genera are known.
Melanoplus includes fourteen of these
species and two of these Mel. baconi
and Mel. sylvaficus are apparently unde- scribed. ,Two others Met. imfucliciis
Sczidd. and Me!, imftger Sd. were
described very recently in Scudder's
monograph cited above.




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