PLATYURA SP.-San Rafael, April 12; venation like tab. xix, f. 7a, of the Monograph of the European Mycetophilide by Winnertz.

PLATYURA SP.-Fossville, Napa County, Cal., May 7. Large red species, with the apex of the wing and a central cloud brown; the anterior branch of the second vein connects it, in the shape of a cross-vein, with the latter part of the first vein.

BOLETINA sp.-Yosemite Valley.
SCIOPHILA, 2 species.

DOCOSIA Sp.-Yosemite Valley, June 8; venation exactly like Winnertz's tab. xx, f. 23a.

MYCETOPHILA sp.-San Rafael, Cal., April. Of the group of the European M. lunata, and very like it.

EXECHIA sp.-Yosemite Valley.

GNORISTE MEGARRHINA n. sp.-Proboscis nearly as long as the body, filiform. Length of the body, 7mm; of the proboscis 5.5mm; face deep velvet-black, opaque; antennæ brown, second joint somewhat reddish; proboscis brown; vertex black, with a slight gray pollen; thorax brownish-yellow, with three black stripes on the dorsum, the intermediate geminate; halteres pale yellow; legs yellow; tarsi infuscated; wings with a slight yellowish tinge; a light gray shadow along the hind margin, beginning at the apex.

Hab.-Yosemite Valley, June 10.-One specimen.

Although the proboscis of this species is much longer than that of the European G. apicalis, they agree in all essential characters, and there is no necessity for establishing a new genus. G. megarrhina has the venation of G. apicalis (Winnertz, 1. c., tab. xx, f. 16); only the proximal end of the fork of the fifth vein is a little nearer to the root of the wing, and the costa is prolonged a little beyond the tip of the second vein.

Family BLEPHAROCERIDÆ.

The new species which I describe is the tenth now known species of this remarkable family,-remarkable for its exceptional characters; for the paucity of the species, scattered through the most distant parts of the world; and for the variety of generic modifications which these species show in preserving at the same time with wonderful uniformity the very striking family characters, some of which are unique in the whole order of Diptera. Among those ten species, three belong to the United States; one I found abundantly in a locality near Washington, D. C.; the second was discovered by Lieut. W. L. Carpenter in the Rocky Mountains; the third, described below, comes from Yosemite Valley. A list of the known species of the family, in chronological order of publication, with the locality of each, may find its place here:

Blepharocera fasciata (Westw.), in Guérin-Méneville, Magaz. de Zool., 1842.-Albania, in Europe.

Liponeura cinerascens Loew, Stett. Entom. Zeit., 1844.-Europe.

Apistomyia elegans Bigot, Ann. Soc. Entom. de France, 1862.-Corsica

Blepharocera capitata Loew, Centur., iv, 1863.-District of Columbia. Paltostoma superbiens Schiner, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges., 1866.-Colombia, South America.

Liponeura bilobata Loew, Bullet. Soc. Entom. Ital., 1869.-Southern Italy and islands of Greece.

Hammatorhina bella Loew, Bull. Soc. Entom. Ital., 1869.-Ceylon. Bibiocephala grandis Osten Sacken, in Dr. Hayden's Geol. Rept. for 1873.-Rocky Mountains.

Hapalothrix lugubris Loew, Deutsche Ent. Mon., Berl., 1876, p. 213.— Monte Rosa (Italian side).

Blepharocera yosemite n. sp.

Blepharocera yosemite is closely allied to the known species, both of the genera Blepharocera and Liponeura. The differences it shows, although important, do not necessitate the immediate formation of a new genus for it, the more so as sooner or later new additions to the family Blepharoceride will probably require a remodeling of the now adopted genera.

The structural characters of the species are as follows :—

Eyes pubescent, separated by a moderately broad front; upper smaller portion of the eye with large, lower larger portion with small, facets. Antennæ 14-jointed, about twice as long as the head, and of equal breadth, that is, not tapering toward the end; first joint very short and small, the second a little larger, the third long, cylindrical, equal to the two following taken together, the fourth and following joints subcylin drical, attenuated at the base. Legs long and comparatively strong; a large and stout spur at the end of the hind tibiæ; a much smaller spur alongside of it; ungues with a tooth-like incrassation at the base. Wings comparatively larger and broader than in Blepharocera; anal lobe very large, projecting. Venation: second submarginal cell short and petiolate, the petiole being about equal in length to the interrupted vein between the incomplete second and third posterior cells (in other words, the third vein does not issue near the small cross-vein, but from the second vein, at a distance from the small cross-vein, about equal to the abbreviated vein). Between the base of the fourth posterior cell and the preceding (fourth) longitudinal vein, a cross-vein exists (as it does in Liponeura bilobata and in Bibiocephala). In other respects, the venation resembles that of Blepharocera and Liponeura. Forceps of the male large, its lobes flattened, as if coriaceous (even in the living insect).

It follows from this enumeration that in the structure of the front the present species is nearer to Liponeura, the eyes of Blepharocera being subcontiguous; in the structure of the facets of the eyes, it is like Blepharocera and unlike Liponeura, where the facets are said to be of equal size on both halves of the eye. From both genera it differs in the shortness of the second submarginal cell. It resembles Liponeura bilobata in the presence of a cross-vein between the fourth vein and the fork behind it, a cross-vein which is wanting in L. cinerea and in Blepharocera.

The antennæ have one joint less than those of Blepharocera (I counted them on the living specimen), and although proportionally of the same length, they are not subsetaceous, as in the latter genus, and have much more distinctly marked joints.

BLEPHAROCERA YOSEMITE n. sp., 3.-Body brownish-gray; wings tinged with brown, their distal third hyaline. Length 6-7mm; wing 9mm

Body brownish; thorax above with a grayish pollen, abdominal incisures slightly whitish, more distinctly so on the sides of the venter; genitals reddish; antennæ brownish, paler at base; legs yellowishbrown; the tips of the femora infuscated; wings tinged with brown, this brown with a distinct bluish opalescence; distal third of the wings hyaline.

Three male specimens caught by me on the wing, on the bridle-path to the foot of the Upper Yosemite Fall, June 6, 1876, about 3 p. m.

Family TIPULIDÆ.

The enumeration which I give contains some thirty-five species from California, belonging to the first six sections of the Tipulidæ, commonly united under the name of Tip. brevipalpi,—a comparatively small number, considering that, owing to my early studies in this family, I paid more attention to it perhaps than to any other. The paucity of Eriopterina was especially striking. Trichocera, which one would naturally expect during the warm winter days of that climate, did not appear at all; I found a single specimen of a rather peculiar species later in the spring.

Among these thirty-five species, seventeen are identical with species from the Atlantic States, or at least so closely resembling them as to be provisionally classed among the species of doubtful identity. Two of that class of species are at the same time European,-Symplecta punctipennis and Trimicra pilipes. The very common occurrence of the latter all over California during winter and spring is worthy of notice. Most of the species peculiar to California belong to genera represented in other parts of the world:-Dicranomyia (2 sp., one of which unde scribed); Limnobia (2 sp.); Erioptera (2 sp.); Elliptera (1 sp.); Goniomyia (1 sp., undescribed); Limnophila (4 sp., only one described); Trichocera (1 sp.); Amalopis (1 sp.); Pedicia (1 sp.); Eriocera (1 sp.). Among these, the following deserve to be noticed:

Elliptera, a genus belonging to the remarkable and intermediate group Limnobina anomala, was among the few European genera which have not hitherto been discovered in North America. I found a number of specimens in the Yosemite Valley, which reproduce exactly the generic characters of Elliptera, although they belong to a species different from the only European species hitherto described.

Eriocera californica belongs to the Eriocera with very long antennæ in the male, of which three species occur in the Atlantic States, one in

Chili, and two fossil species have been found in the Prussian amber. I am not aware of such species having been found in other countries, although Eriocera with short antennæ in both sexes are everywhere abundant in the tropics.

Pedicia is represented by a single species, analogous to the Eastern American and the European species, but different from both.

The new genus Phyllolabis, with two species, is peculiar to California, and remarkable for the large development of the forceps of the male. Of the two sections intermediate between the Tipulida brevipalpi and longipalpi, no Cylindrotomina have as yet been discovered in the western region. The Ptychopterina are represented by two species:

Ptychoptera lenis n. sp., which belongs to the whole western region from California to Colorado.

Protoplasta vipio n. sp., perhaps the most interesting of all the Californian Tipulidæ, closely allied to the Chilian Tanyderus, the fossil ambergenus Macrochile, and the North American Protoplasta fitchi.

Bittacomorpha has not as yet been found in California, but B. clavipes occurs in Oregon.

The Tipulida longipalpi, in contrast to the brevipalpi, are very abund antly represented in California, both in the number of species and of specimens. The larvæ probably live on the roots of the rich and abundant Californian grasses. I have abstained from working up this part of my collection, owing to the large number of closely allied species and my insufficient knowledge of the Tipulida of the Atlantic States.

The gigantic Holorusia rubiginosa is a peculiar Californian form. However, Dr. Loew, in establishing the genus, mentions Holorusiæ from Java (Centur., iv, 1); elsewhere he describes one from the island Bourbon.

Pachyrrhina are much rarer in California than in the Atlantic States. A species of Dixa occurs in California; but I have only a single imperfect specimen (San Geronimo, Marin County, April 19).

Section I-Limnobina.

GERANOMYIA CANADENSIS (Westwood), Osten Sacken, Monogr., iv, p. 80.-Male and female from Los Angeles, February. A common species in the Atlantic States.

DICRANOMYIA BADIA (Walker), Osten Sacken, Monogr., iv, p. 72.— Common in the Atlantic States. San Rafael, Cal., March 31, April 13.

DICRANOMYIA DEFUNCTA Osten Sacken, Monogr., iv, p. 76.—Common in the Atlantic States near springs or water running over dams. Santa Cruz, Cal., May 21, three males in the same situation. I ob served the structure of the forceps, peculiar to this species, on the specimens when they were still alive. A single specimen from Webber Lake, July 24, has the wings much less densely spotted, and with a cross-vein in the submarginal cell. The cross-vein, however, may be merely adventitious.

DICRANOMYIA MARMORATA Osten Sacken, Monogr., iv, p. 77.—A Californian species. I found a male and a female near Saucelito, Cal., April 2. In the live insect, I noticed a peculiarity, which I had overlooked in the dry ones, from which I drew my description. The antennæ are distinctly submoniliform, the nearly globular joints being separated by very short pedicels. In my description, the words "related to humidicola O. S." better be struck out.

DICRANOMYIA n. sp.-Seems common in Marin County, California, in April. In looking for it on my analytical table (1. c., p. 61,) D. liberta and hæretica would be reached; it is neither of them, but a new species, which I leave to others to describe, as my specimens are not well preserved enough for that purpose. The structure of the male forceps will have to be observed in the live specimens.

LIMNOBIA SCIOPHILA n. sp.-Marginal cross vein some distance back of the tip of the first longitudinal vein; femora with three brown rings; wings with grayish clouds and intervening subhyaline spaces in all the cells; length 10-11mm.

Rostrum, palpi, and antennæ brown, the latter with long verticils; thoracic dorsum with three brown stripes, the intervening spaces, shoulders, middle of the mesonotum, etc., grayish-pruinose; abdomen brown, incisures paler; genitals yellowish-brown; halteres with brown knobs; femora pale yellow, with three brown rings on the distal half, the last of them very near the tip; tibiæ and tarsi yellowish-brown. Wings with a faint yellowish tinge as a ground-color; grayish clouds of irregular shape occupy all the cells, and become almost confluent on the distal half of the wing, leaving only small spaces of the ground-color at both ends of the cells; in four or five places along the first vein, the clouds are darker, so as to have the appearance of brown spots; the marginal cross-vein is in the middle of the stigma, and some distance back of the tip of the first vein.

Hab.-Marin and Sonoma Counties, California, in the spring; common, especially in dark, deep gulches, with running water at the bottom (Menlo Park, March 25; San Rafael, April, May; Geysers, Sonoma County, May). Three males and four females.

Very closely allied to the European L. nubeculosa.

LIMNOBIA CALIFORNICA Osten Sacken, Monogr., iv, p. 96.—California.

Section II.-Limnobina anomala.

DICRANOPTYCHA SOBRINA Osten Sacken, Monogr., iv, p. 118. — A species very similar to this eastern one, and perhaps identical with it, occurs quite commonly in Marin and Sonoma Counties, California. The two basal joints of the brown antennæ are yellow and the fringe of hairs on the anterior margin of the wings in the male is not very long and conspicuous; in both respects, these specimens are more like the form which I called D. sororcula in my former essay, and which later I gave up as a species, perhaps erroneously. The specific characters in this