189o 78i · 2019. 5. 12. · light yellow, palpi infuscated. antennae x9-jointed elongate,...

200 P,]v’CH.. [Fbruaw 89.

THE TIPULID GENERA BITTACOMORPHA AND PEDICIA.

BY" j. M. ALDRICH, MOSCOW, IDAHO.

BITTACOMORPHA. Westwood, Lond.Edinb. philos, mag., vi, 28t (I835).The only known species up to 189o

was clarifies, described by Fabriciusin his " Species insectorum" in 78Iunder the generic name of Tipula. Inhis ’ Systema Antliatorum" (18o5) hereferred it to the genus Ptychoptera,where it remained until Westwooderected for it the present genus in I83.

In 189o von R6der described the

second species, sackenii, from a singledamaged specimen, captured inNevada. This species and onedescribed in the present article bothoccur in the neighborhood of PugetSound. As yon R6der’s descriptionis not readily accessible to Americanstudents, and does not include all theimportant characters, I redescribethe species.

TaMe o S/gecies.x. All the tibiae ringed with snow white near the base all the metatarsi white at

base 2.Tibiae not ringed, metatarsi white at tip, instead of base. sackenii v. R6der.

2. Dorsum of thorax deep velvety black with a white middle line; second sub-marginal cell one-third as long as the first posterior. clavies Fabr.

Dorsum of thorax shining black, no.middle line of white; second submarginalcell half as long as first posterior occidentalis, n. sp.

Bittacomor13ka sackenH Von R6der,Wiener entom, zeit. ix, 23o.--. Frontinfuscated, face yellow; both overlaid witha thin white sericeous coating; proboscislight yellow, palpi infuscated. Antennaex9-jointed elongate, equalling the wingin length, uniform black in color. Thoraxwholly pale yellow, except the dorsumwhich is shining black, the humeri, supra-alar area, and a spot before the scutellum,yellow; between the coxae at the sidesthere is a black spot in each interval, con-siderably expanded in fully-colored speci-mens; metanotum and knob of halteresinfuscated. Abdomen long, strongly clavate,black, with short, scattered white pile; thefirst segment pale at base, all the segments

with a narrow pale distal band; secondsegment i times as long as the third,fourth and fifth each about equal to thethird; claspers small, compact, black, witha pair of black palpi-like organs coveredwith black hairs. Femora pale at base,the apical half or more black, but in lighterspecimens .sometimes only an apical blackring; tibiae of the same color, not so lightat base; metatarsi black, with white tip;second and third joints of tarsi white, therest brown. Wings hyaline, along the apexdistinctly hairy, venation as in 17. clavigbes.Length, I mm of wing, 7 mm.. Antennae shorter, wings longer and

wider, the latter scarcely exceeding halfthe length of the former.

February x895.] PST’C/--/’

Five males, two females, Seattle,Washington, at Lake Union, the lastof August and first few days of Sep-tember, 1894.

Bittacomorjhka occidentalis, n. sp. .Head wholly black, the front and the pointedface with a white sericeous covering; theantennae would extend about to the tip ofthe first abdominal segment, if bent backalong the sides. Thorax black, the dorsumwholly shining; scutellum yellow; pleurawhite sericeous, a spot before the root of thewing and one above the base of the haltersyellowish-pollinose. Abdomen black, theposterior margins of the segments narrowlywhitish. Femora pale at base graduallydarker to the tip, which is black; tibiaeringed with white near the base; secondand third tarsal joints, and the base of themetatarsi, white; the metatarsus is as longas the following joints taken together, andits black part is somewhat swollen. Wingshyaline, the second submarginal cell almosthalf as long as the first posterior.’. The alatennae are broken off

from my only specimen; abdomenless clavate than in B. sackenil, theappendages dark brown with palehairs.

Length, x8-I9 mm. ;of wing ’, 8,?, ram.One male, two females, Seattle,

Wash. One specimen was collectedthe last of August, 894 at Lake Union.

This is possibly the species referredto in Osten Sackea’s note to Z?. da-vipes, Catalogue, p. 36, where he says,"Specimens from California in Mr.Verrall’s collection in London have ashining thorax and a shorter submargi-nal cell; they may belong to a differentspecies." They could not belong tooccictentalis unless the word " shorter"in the quotation were a slip of the penfor lolger."

Bittacomorjbka clavipes Fabr.

One female Custer, S. D. (BlackHills, 5ooo feet), August, 1892 in amoist meadow.Cotnparing Osten Sacken’s notes in

"We’stern Diptera," p. 207, and in hiscatalogue, p. 36, it may reasonably bedoubted whether the true clavi2bes hasyet been found west of the RockyMountains.

P:DIClA. Latreille, Gen. Crust.Ins. iv, 55, 8o9.This genus is a somewhat difficult

one to determine, from the fact thatthe palpi have the same structure as inthe section longipalbi, while he vena-tion and other characters make it outa metaaber of the brevibalbi. In otherwords, it is a brevipalp Tipulid withlong palpi. Several years ago Ireceived from Mr. Chas. Palm a fine

Pedicia albivitta Walk.

male of P. albivitta Walk., the onlyeastern species, a particularly handsomeinsect, which remained an enigma tome for a long time. In Baron OstenSacken’s monograph no figure of thewing is given, and as the venation isvery peculiar, annex a figure tofacilitate the recognition of the genus.The genus Amalobis Haliday is some-what similar in venation, but has thebrown coloring, if at all, in an entirelydifferent pattern.

PS2CHE. [February t895.

Ped/c/a obtusa Osten Sacken, WesternDipt., 205. rathe description of this speciesgiven by Osten Sacken was o.nly a provi-sional one, covering the salient features,owing to the fact that he did not have thespecimen before him at the time, butdepended upon Mr. Hy Edwards, the ownerof the type, to write him the characters. Ashave a specimen, record the full description.

o*. Head small, grayish, the antennaeyellow, pali brown frontal tubercle distinct,close to the antennae. Thorax grayishsericeous, ground color yellow, a doublebrown line on the dorsum and an abbreviatedone each side of it, reaching to the trans-verse suture; on the pronotum a narrowmedian black line; a black stripe from thehumerus to the base of the wing. Disk ofmetathorax and knobs of halters infuscated.Abdomen light brown, darker along the

median line; the horny genital appendagesare rather elongate, yellow, not infuscated.Legs brownish yellow, tips of femora andtibiae more infiiscated, tarsi dark brown.Wings hyaline and brown, with almost thesame pattern as in P. albivitta. The tip ofthe wing is not bent back so far as in thelatter species. The brown color follows thefifth vein to the margin, differing in thisrespect from Mr. Edwards’s specimen.Length, 28 mm. of wing, 22 mm.

Lake Union, Seattle, Washington,the last of August.The most important structural differ-

ence between this and 29. albivitta isin the male lamellae, which are morethan twice as large in the presentspecies.

GALL OF EURYTOMA SP. ON THE CAT’S.CLAW THORN.

BY C. H. TYLER TOWNS:END LAS CRUCES, N. MEX.

Specimens of a very hard roundedgall were found on branches andtwigs of the cat’s-claw thorn (Acaciasp.), which grows plentifully fi’omnear base to part way up the OrganMts., at the north end of th range,about three miles southeast of SanAugustine. These galls greatly re-semble those of Rhodites. At thedate on which they were found, Nov.6, 892, they appeared to be empty,the insects having mostly escapedthrough numbers of small holes ineach gall. The galls were quiteplentifil. From those containingexit holes, the following brief descrip-tion is drawn.

Gall. Length (measured on twig), xoto 19 mm. greatest width 8 to 6 mm.

Oblong-rounded or suboval, very hard,always formed on one side of the twig,the other side of the twig even with thesurface of the gall and its bark left intact,the bark of the rest of the twig or branchbeing split by the growing of the gall andadhering to its surface in imperfect strips,being best preserved next the sides of twig.Smaller specimens do not show this. Colorreddish brown, more or less grayish wherecovered with bark and in smaller galls.Bulged surface that is not covered by barkfinely roughened, sometimes more or lesssplit in process of swelling.

Four galls. The small ones showonly from one to three holes each.A larger gall shows about twentyexit holes, and in addition numbersof very minute holes through whichparasites of the gall flies must haveescaped. The minute holes are about

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189o 78i · 2019. 5. 12. · light yellow, palpi infuscated. antennae x9-jointed elongate,...

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