A. L. Melander.
Studies in Asilidae (Diptera).
Psyche 30(6):207-219, 1923.

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Studies in Asilidce (Diptera)
STUDIES IN ASILIDB (D1PTERA)l
Pullman, Washington.
While the June-August issue of Psyche, containing a review of the genus Cyrtopogon, was in preparation a similar study by C. Howard Curran appeared in the Canadian Entomologist, April to October. In the paper in Psyche I described seven new species of Cyrtopogon, and Curran's paper included twelve new species. This curious coincidence in the selection of a genus for review might have resulted in unfortunate additions to synonymy, but such is not the case, for among the nineteen new species described neither Curran nor myself chanced upon the same forms.
Two reflections are pertinent in this connection. First,
there should be some clearing house where investigators could report their intended activities and thus be notified if the field is preempted. Possibly the National Research Council will in . time function in this capacity for all America, or better for all nationalities. With reference to my own studies twice before have other workers independently selected the same groups for review, referring to Malloch's Agromyzidse and to Cresson's Sciomyzidse, which papers were in the printers' hands coincident- ally with manuscripts of mine. Second, the fact that two workers discover nineteen new species in a well-known genus of an eagerly sought family without conflicting with each other shows that much more is still to be done in systematic dipterology than we are wont to realize.
With regard to the two new genera described by Curran both have a slender, tapering, third antenna1 joint with long style. Cornantella was established for two species, cristata Coquillett and fallei Back, hitherto assigned to Cophura, and because fallei was regarded as the same as Cyrtopogon waculosis Coquillett the last-named species was designated as the genotype. Contribution from the 7oology Laboratory of the State College of Washington.
Pa& 30:207-219 (19231, http:/Ppsyche cnlclub wgf3W30.207 html



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208 Psyche [~ecember
I have nineteen specimens of Cyrtopogon maculosis, in none of which is there a trace of the curved claw-like spur at the apex of the front tibiae. I also have another specimen, almost indistin- guishable from the others, which has the spur strongly developed. This last specimen I refer to fallei in the genus Comantella. C. fallei has the fork of the third vein locatled before the posterior crossvein and the anterior crossvein at nearly three-fourths the length of the discal cell. Its bristles are stronger, the pygidium longer
and the thoracic gibbosity more compressed than in maculosis, which has the anterior crossvein at the middle of the discal cell and the fork of the third vein opposite the end of this cell. Maculosis is referable to Curran's new genus Eucyrtopogon. The genotype of Comantella is therefore fallei Back, synonym maczilosis Curran, not Coquillett. Instead of being a highly variable character the terminal claw-like spur maintains its dignity as an "atavic index" to the two main subdivisions of both the Dasypogoninee and the Laphrinae. Key to the North American Species of Cophura. .... Wings dark; abdomen and legs more or less reddish. .2.
Wings more or less hyaline; abdomen black or blue-black, with pollinose spots. ............................. .4. 2. Three deep black stripes on notum, the middle one geminate; wings uniformly brown; abdomen reddish-yellow . (Mex.) sodalis0.S.
........................................ Thoracic stripes brownish; wings in part clear toward apex ............................ ............... 3. 3. Legs black, the knees, base of tibiae and part of tarsi yellow; abdomen brown-black, the hind margins of ....
segments narrowly reddish. (Mex.) hz~rnilis Will. Legs reddish, anterior femora darkened on outer posterior side; abdomen red, laterally white pruinose. (Tex.) .......................................... bella Lw. 4.
Pollinose marks of abdomen large, extending along sides and more or less across front part of segments; tibiae reddish. ......................................... .5.



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19231 Studies in Asilidce (Diptero,) 209 Lateral pollinose marks of abdomen not extending across ...........................
front part of segments. .7.
5.
Wings clouded on crossveins and furcations, base of second submarginal cell truncate and with a spur of a vein. ... .6. Wings hyaline, no spur at fork of third vein, anal cell closed and petiolate. (Cal.) ............ clausa Coq. 6. Anal cell open. (Cal.) ................... trunca Coq. Anal cell closed in the margin; lateral pollinose marks of abdomen each witjh central black shining spot. (Cal.) ................................... highla~zdica Cole. 7. Legs red; oral and trichostical bristles black. (Wash., Or., Wyo. ................................ brevicornis Will. ................................
Legs entirely black. .8.
................................
8. Oral bristles black. .9.
Oral hairs white. ................................. .lo. 9.
Crossveins and furcations tinged with brown; pruinosity of thorax brownish, bristles pale, scutellar margin nar- rowly black and with six pale hairs; abdominal segments scarcely pruinose at base. (Wash., Or.) . . scitula Will. Wings clear hyaline; pruinosity of thorax grayish, bristles black, scutellar margin broadly black and with two short black setae; abdominal segments with basal pruinose fascia. (Id.) ..................... .melanochceta, n. sp. 10.
Wings tinged with brown; mesonotum marked wit'h brown broad geminate median stripe and lateral spots. (Mex.)
pulchella Will.
......................................
Wings nearly or wholly hyaline; mesonotal pattern nearly obsolete ........................................ 11. 1 1. Mesonotum nearly bare ; pygidium whi be-pruinose. (Ariz.) .............................................. Will. Mesonotum whitish pilose; pygidium polished. (cyrtopo- gona Cole) (B. C., Wash., Or.). ...... .albosetosa Hine. The genus Cophura has been heterotypic, serving t'o combine various species that run to it in the keys, without regard to their phylogeny. The separation of Comantda helps to unify the group, but it is still diverse. The species are considered rare, only the type material being known of most of its forms. I




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210 Psyche [~ecember
have taken brevicornis near Spokane, in the Olympic Peninsula and near Mount Adams, in Washington; at Portland, Oregon; and in the Yellowstone Park. I have also taken scitula at Portland, Oregon, and albosetosa at Yakima, Washington. The preceeding key differentiates the species assigned to Cophura. Cophura melanochaeta, new species.
Male.-Length 6.5 mm. Black, head and thorax cinereous pollinose, abdomen marked with silvery pruinose fasciae on segments 2-5 and round pruinose spots on hind angles of segments 1-5. Facial hairs sparse, white, oral bristles strong and black, a row of black setulae along frontal orbits, occipital hairs and sets& white; basal joints of antennae rounded, with strong black inferior setae, third joint widest beyond middle, three times the length of either basal joint, the style three-jointed, including its apical peg-like joint as long as a basal joint of the antennae. Mesonotum with dense pollen, darker gray in center, its vestiture short black recumbent setulse, lateral bristles black, base of scutellum heavily light-gray pollinose, only two short black apical setae, middle of metanotum lightly pollinose. Abdominal hairs inconspicuous, pale, those at base of the small pygidium dark; ventral segments mostly shining black, each gray-fasciate at base and apex. Leg bristles black, hairs pale, inside of distal half of hind tibiae and of basal two joints of hind tarsi thickly yellow pubescent. Halteres yellow; wings entirely hyaline, veins black, clear-cut, fork of third vein a little beyond discal cell, anterior crossvein slightly beyond middle of discal cell, anal cell open.
Female.-Length 10 mm.
A pair taken at Waha, Idaho, 12 Aug. 1923; another female, Moscow Mt ., Idaho, Jul. 8.
Key to the Species of Metapogon.
Legs in part reddish; wings more or less clouded on cross- veins ............................................. 2. Legs black, at most knees reddish; wings not marked about crossveins ; antennae black. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4.



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19231 Studies in Asilidce (Diptera) 211
2.
Antennae black; anterior crossvein at middle of discal cell; plurse with golden spots. (Cal.). ...... .pictus Cole. Base of antennae yellow; anterior crossvein beyond middle ...................................
of discal cell. .3.
3. Abdomen with large triangular pollinose marks; bristles yellow; femora reddish. (Cal.) .......... gilvipes Coq . Abdomen polished,
with gray pruinose spots at base of
segments 2-6; bristles black; femora black except knees. (N. Mex.) ......................... .punctipennis Coq. 4. Mainly black, abdomen with small pruinose spots; wings of male white on basal half, lightly infumated apically, of female uniformly lightly infumated; mystax stiff and black. (Wash., Id., Or., Cal.) ........... setiger Cole. Body mainly cinereous, base of abdominal segments black; wings hyaline; mystax white. (Wash.). . albulus, n. sp. Metapogon albulus, new species
Male.-Length 7 mm. Black, entirely and heavily coated with silvery gray pruinosity, leaving only the bases of abdominal segments showing black. Bristles of face and front white, ocellar bristles black; third antenna1 joint widest at three-fifths its length, the style almost microscopic, setae below basal joints of antennae black; beard sparse and white, upper part of oc-
ciput bare except for the row of white setae. Bristles of anterior part of thorax white, of posterior part black, four or five stout bristles in dorsocentral row, posthumeral bristle present, white, two supraalar bristles, scutellum with two marginal bristles, otherwise bare, two to five hypopleural setae, pleurae devoid of pile except on prothorax. Pile and set8 at sides of first ab- dominal segment white, remaining segments with very sparse short white hairs, base of segments two to five very narrowly devoid of pruinosity, hypopygium small black and inserted in the end of the cylindrical abdomen, its hairs pale and rather sparse; venter entirely glaucous. Legs black, the coxse alone pruinose, knees very narrowly yellowish, femora with a few small white flexor bristles, bristles of tibiae white except those at apex, tarsal bristles black, claws black, pulvilli brownish, hairs of legs



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212 Psyche [~ece mber
sparse short and white. Halteres yellow; wings almost hyaline, veins da'rk brown, becoming paler at root, hind margin closely fringed with fine hair, anterior crossvein at two-fifths the length of the discal cell, anal cell open.
Female.-Bases of abdominal segments two to six with broader black fasciae, seventh segment lightly black, venter with hiangular black denuded marks increasing in size posteriorly, the sixth segment entirely black, some of tibia1 bristles blackish. Types.-Six specimens Pullman, Washington, and Collins, Idaho (C. V. Piper) July and August. Type in collection of State College of Washington.
Keij to Species of Dioctria.
Femora wholly black, the tibiae alone sometimes reddish.. .2. Femora and rest of legs wholly or largely yellow or red; mystax pale. ................................... .11. 2.
Mystax fulvous and dense; body brilliant greenish black. (Cal.) .............................. resplendens Lw . Mystax generally black, rarely white, if fulvous not dense; ...................... body less brilliantly metallic. .3. 3.
Third joint of antennae one and one-half times the length of the two basal joints together and cylindrical (Banksi Johns.) .......................................... 4. Third joint of antennae subequal to basal joints together. . .5. 4. Legs wholly black. (Va.) ............ Banksi Johns., s.str. All tibiae reddish on basal half. (Va.)-. . var. tibialis Banks 5. Legs wholly black. ................................. .6. .................... Tibiae more or less reddish-yellow .9.
6. Wings yellowish on basal half, blackish on apical half. (Cal.) .................................. parvula Coq. ............... Base of wings not markedly yellowish.. ,7.
7.
Upper plate of hypopygium wide, with two broad lobes; fulvous coat of mesopleura extending along upper edge only. (Eastern U. S., doubtful if in West). . albius Walk. Upper plate of hypopygium narrow, pronged but not with flat lobes. ....................................... .8.



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19231 Studies in Asilidce (Diptera) 213
8.
Upper plate divided into two long tapering parts ending in a knob-like enlargement, with a tooth on inner surface and a pencil of yellow hair on outer edge (N. Y.; N. Car.) ............................ brevis Banks Upper plate a slender finger-like undivided projection about four times as long as wide and with parallel sides, lateralarms short and heavy. (Cal. ; Wash.) media Banks 9.
Tibise except tips reddish-yellow; notum heavily coated with fulvous, abdomen metallic ~iola~ceous; large species, 11-13mm ....................................... 10. Only base of tibise yellowish; mesopleural pollen extending down along posterior edge; face of male silvery, of female golden; 7-9 mm. (Wash., Id.,; doubtful if East) sackeni, form rivalis new
.............................
10.
Mesopleural pollen along upper edge only; face of both sexes brassy. (Cal., Wash.) ............ nitida Will. Mesopleura with dense fulvous pollen and pile extending down along posterior edge; face of male silvery. (Cal.)
doanei,n.sp.
......................................
11.
Abdomen wholly black; femora with black line above.. . .12. Abdomen in part reddish, at least with lateral spot or in- cisures reddish; femora wholly yellow; thorax polished black. ......................................... .14. 12. Mesonotum densely coated with golden pollen; wings largely yellow. (Ida., Wash., Or.; if eastern in dis- tribution, probably dimorphic form of albius Walk.) sackeni Will.
.......................................
Mesonotum thinly coated with yellow pollen, leaving two narrow black lines. ............................. 13. 13. Face silvery, mystax white; wings hyaline. (Eur.; Mass.) baumhaueriMg.
....................................
Face golden, mystax yellow; wings dark.
(Cal.) Vera Back
14.
Coxse black; abdomen reddish, first four segments more or less black; arista one-sixth the third antenna1 joint; wings blackish. (Cal.) .................. rubida Coq. Coxse yellow; style one-fourth to one-half the third an- tennal joint; wings lighter ; hind metatarsus swollen, equal to next three joints in length. ................ .15.



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214 Psyche [~ecember
15.
A yellowish pollinose stripe extending from base of wings to front coxae; abdomen dull rufous, segments with indistinct black near middle; arista one-fourth the third antenna1 joint. (Cal.) ................. pleuralis Banks. Pollinose spot above, front coxa disconnected; arista longer .......................................... 16. 16. Abdomen largely dull reddish; legs reddish. (Cal., Col.) .pusio 0.8.
.......................................
...........
Abdomen largely black, legs pale yellow.. .17
17. Abdomen black and yellow banded. (Or. Wash.) .................................... vertebrata Cole Abdomen narrowly fasciate with reddish and with red spot on sides of second segment. (Wash.) ................................ henshawiJohnson Dioctria doanei, new species.
Male.-Length 14 mm. Robust, black, abdomen bronzed, , tibiae luteous, vestiture dense, yellow. Face silvery, mystax black, vertex and occiput golden, hairs yellow; antennae elon- gate, black, third joint a little longer than the basal two together. Thorax coated with fulvous pollen, especially pronounced on posthumeral areas, scutellum black, lateral bristles of notum fine and yellow; meso- and sternopleurse largely polished. An- terior part of abdominal segments 2-4 sunken, pile of apical segments appressed, deep golden, becoming almost reddish beneath pygidium. Legs strong, hind femora robust, coxae, femora, tips of tibiae, and tarsi black, bristles of tibise and tarsi reddish, pulvilli brown, claws black. Wings strongly and uniformly infumated, discal cell widened apically, anterior crossvein before its middle and fork of third vein just beyond its end, sixth vein curving forward, anal cell narrowly open; halteres yellow.
Two specimens collected by Professor R. W. Doane at Pasadena, California, June 6, 1895. Type in collection of the State College of Washington. The dense pilosity and cons- tricted abdominal segments suggest Dicolonus, but the head is different, the vertex being deep-set and the face flat.



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Studies in Asilidce (Diptera)
Dioctria sackeni, new form rivalis.
Male.-Length 7 mm. Basal half of wings smoky hyaline, distal half merging into blackish; legs black, the anterior knees and the basal half of hind tibiae reddish yellow. Face entirely silvery, mystax, hairs of front, of antennae and of upper occiput black, vertex with scant fulvous coating and not golden. Coating of mesonotum fulvous and not heavy, hairs black; the golden patch in front of wing connected with the more silvery patch on upper sternopleura.
The appressed hairs on posterior half
of abdomen black, not golden as in form Sackeni; dorsal plate of hypopygium continued posteriorly as two long narrow clavate processes, each tipped without by a closed cluster of black bristles and bearing on inner side of knob a pronounced parallel- sided prong, long black hairs on ventral lip and on stout lateral valves. In Sackeni hairs fringing the ventral lip are brown. Female.-Length 8 mm. Face deep golden. Wings uni- f ormly blackish. Legs black.
Morphotypes.-Priest Lake, Idaho, Aug. 1920; Coeur dJAlene, Moscow Mt., Avon, Id. ; Big Fork, Mont. ; Friday Harbor, Quilcene, Wash. ; Nelson, B. C. (Melander) : Stuart Island, Wash. (H. S. Davis); Wolf Fork of Touchet River, Wash. (V. Argo) . Thirty-two specimens.
Late one afternoon while collecting insects at Priest Lake, Idaho, I noticed many specimens of a Dioctria running over the foliage of some alder bushes growing near the water's edge. On mounting the captured specimens there were found to be seven males of D. Sackeni, four males of the present black form and nine black females. The only interpretation is that 'Sackeni is dimorphic in the male sex. I have also taken the lighter colored male of Sackeni together with the dark female at Nelson, B. C.
Light-colored males, similar to D. Sackeni, have been found associated with the dark albius in several places in the East. Dr. Back ventured the opinion that Sackeni, therefore, might prove to be the same as albius, but the recent note by Banks that the Eastern reddish males have genitalia of the albius structure suggests that male dimorphism in Dioctria is probably



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216 Psyche [~ecein ber
extended to several species. The Pennsylvania female with hyaline wings recorded by Johnson in Psyche, 1918, p. 103, as undoubtedly belonging to Sa,ckeni, is more likely a dishct species.
Neopogon salinus, new species.
Male.-Length 9 mni. Entirely densely covered with whitish-gray pollen, abdomen incompletely fasciate with blackish- gray. Antennae cinereous, the style three-fourths the length of the third joint, mystax, hairs and postvertical row of bristles white. Hairs of niesonotuni short and white, slightly longer on sides, scutellum bare; a few hairs on propleurae, pleurae otherwise bare, about eight setiforin hairs in hypopleural row. First, fourth and eight,h abdominal segments almost wholly whitish- gray, remaining segments with transverse blackish-gray marking, pile and bristles at sides of first segment white, hypopygiuni small, silvery, and white pilose, the hood-like covering pink and penicillate below, venter white-gray, bare at base, last four segments with double brush of yellowish-white hairs directed to the middle and covering a subshining space. Legs as heavily coated as body, nearly bare of hairs, bristles mainly white, claws, empodia and some of tarsal bristles black, pulvilli white. Hal- teres whitish yellow. Wings hyaline, with very faint yellowish tone, veins black, yellowish at base, neuration normal. Female.-Length 10 mni. Darkened markings of abdomen on second to sixth segments, ovipositor, i. e. eighth
ventral segment, shining beneath, tarsal bristles all white. Types.-Six specimens collected by Dr. J. M. Aldrich at Great Salt Lake, Utah, July 31, 1908. Type, allotype and two paratypes returned to the Aldrich collection. The species runs to N. Coquilletti in Bezzi's table (Ann. Hung. Mus. 8. 147-153, 1910) but that species has the abdomen colored as in the familiar AT. trifasciatus, with a strong white band on fourth segment, the second and third segments dull black, and the fift,h, sixth and seventh segments shining black.




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19231 Studies in Asilidce (Diptera)
Nicocles punctipennis, new species
Length 12 to 13 mm. Black species, with hyaline wings marked with dark spots around the discal cell and with brownish clouds at the tips of the veins. Fifth segment of male about twice as wide as deep, its front border and the sixth segment silvery. Last three segments of the female abdomen respectively with a pair of gray pruinose triangles, a pair of squares, and ent,irely gray pruinose. Hind tarsi of male silvery within. An- tennal style one-third the length of the third joint. Three strong 1 ateral presutural bristles, two supra-alar, two or three postalar. Male.-Face, front and occiput gray-white pruinose; facial hairs fine, white, comparatively dense, extending to the antennae, long below, bristles of mystax yellowish, oral, ocellar, and post- ocular bristles yellowish brown; beard and palpal hairs white; face nearly square, and but little convex. Antennae black, the basal segments subequal, and provided with white hairs, the second segment with a conspicuous light brown bristle below, the third segment nearly twice as long as the basal joints to- gether, slender, cylindrical, little tapering, three times as long as the thick style. Upper side of t,he thorax with an irregular gray-brown pattern, showing gray, however, on the narrow median entire stripe, on each side of which is a narrow line, abbreviated posteriorly and on the huineri, scutellum, a large square prescutcllar spot, with a triangular space on each side, and a curved sutural stripe extending up above the root of each wing. This sutural stripe does not continue across the notum, but stops on the row of dorsocentral bristles, where it connects with gray horns from the anterior angles of the prescutellar spot. The brown color is not uniform, and is darkest as an interrupted vitta crossing the interior end of the gray sutural stripe. The oval center of the prescutellar spot is denuded and shows the polished black ground color of the thorax. Mesonotal hairs very fine, and rather sparse and long, pale yellowish, the posterior bristles pale, with brownish base: disc of the scutellum with white hairs, the margin with two cruciate bristles. Pleurae and cox= gray pruinose, the center of the mesopleurse alone brownish ; trichostichal hairs long, numerous, and whitish;



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218 Psyche [~ecember
halteres black, their stem brown. Abdomen flat, shining black except for the gray lateral margins of the basal three and a half segments, and the silvery tip, which occupies the whole of the last segment and the anterior part of the fifth. On this segment the silvery band is broadly emarginate behind, so that it occupies but one-fourth of the segment at the middle, and then curves down to the hind angles; this segment is but little more than twice as broad as deep. The vestiture of the abdomen consists of very sparse, appressed, golden hairs and longer erect white hairs growing from black pittings on the gray lateral marks. The venter is gray, speckled with brown at the root of each hair. Legs with appressed whitish pubescence and with yellowish bristles, the inner side of the hind tarsi and of the end of the hind tibiae with dense silvery hairs, anterior tibiae rufous, rest of legs black in ground color. Wings hyaline, but with dark brown spots located at the very root, on the crossveins, bordering the ends of the veins at the wing-tip, and across the wing at the base of the discal cell as a much interrupted band, broadest and darkest in the marginal cell. The hyaline anal cell is closed in the margin, the posterior cells all open, and the fork of the third vein is broken at the base of the second submarginal cell, and there provided with a spur.
Female.-Differs in that the gray covering is less pure, but sullied with brown on the face, front, pleural sclerites and venter. The end of the abdomen lacks the silvery pruinosity, but instead, the fifth segment has lateral gray triangles, the sixth is gray except for a median stripe, and the seventh is completely gray. The pubescence of the legs is duller and there is none of the silvery ornamentation.
Types.-Male, Wawawai, Washington, May 1, 1909 (Wm. M. Mann). Two females from same locality, April 10 and 23, and two from Wallula, Washington, April, 1923 (P. G. Putnam.) A female paratype collected by E. I,. Jenne, at North Yakima, Washington, September 18, 1903, is in the collection of the Washington State College.
This large and distinct species can be quickly recognized in the male by the concave silvery mark on the fifth abdominal segment, and in the female by the spotting of the wings as well



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19231 Studies in Asilidce (Diptera) 219
as by the maculation of the abdomen. In Coquillett's key (page 385, Back monograph, 1909) it goes to the last couplet, but does not conform with either argentatus or cemulator. The recently des- cribed N. utahensis Banks likewise goes to the last couplet of the key but differs from the present species in weaker chsetotaxy, blacker thorax, and, apparently, much smaller size.



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