AMERICAN MUSEUM Novitares Published by Number 1040 the AMERICAN MUSEUM of NATURAL HISTORY September 19, 1939 New York City

AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITArES Published by Number 1040 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY September 19, 1939 New York City

THE SPECIES OF TEMNOSTOMA RELATED TO BOMBYLANS LINNt (SYRPHIDAE, DIPTERA) BY C. H. CURRAN

Although it has long been recognized Middle tibiae brown on apical half......

...... barberiShannon. that Temnostoma bombylans Linne does not 10.-Posterior four femora usually mostly black; occur in North America there has been con- the hind tibiae usually brown on apical fusion concerning the identity of this and half or more; front of 9 with pollinose related species. Four species related to fascia below ..... trifa8ciata Robertson. Posterior four legs usually all reddish yel- bombylans have been described from low; female usually with only three yel- America but their separation is not easy. low pollinose fasciae on abdomen, the In order to facilitate the identification of front never with a broad, entire bright the species in the genus I present the fol- yellow fascia above the antennae...... lowing key. ... acra, n. sp. Temnostoma balyras Walker TABLE OF SPECIES Syrphus balyras WALKER, 1849, List Dipt. 1.-Scutellum not yellow pollinose . 2. Brit. Mus., III, p. 577. Scutellum yellow pollinose (Middle States and South) ...... pictulum Williston. This species has been placed as a syno- 2.-Fourth abdominal segment with a median nym of bombylans Linne, but, like all the subrectangular black spot and a trans- other known American species, it has the verse oval one on either side...... of the male separated...... alternans Loew. eyes conspicuously Fourth abdominal segment differently It is one of two species having the hair on marked ...... 3. the apical one or two abdominal segments 3.-Pale spots on the thoracic suture conspicu- yellow on upper surface. In the males the ously separated from each other...... hind femora ...... venustum Williston. legs are extensively black, the Pale spots contiguous, appearing as a trans- being always more than half black. In the verse stripe on either side of the meso- females the legs are much more extensively notum ...... 4. pale, the posterior four legs sometimes be- 4.-Abdomen with three or four yellow fasciae, ing almost all reddish and yellowish. all of nearly the same width ...... 7. Abdomen with more than four yellow fasciae, the apical segments actually Temnostoma barberi Shannon yellowish or grayish, with a median, un- interrupted black fascia ...... 5. Related to trifasciata Robertson but dis- 5.-Scutellum yellow pilose ...... 6. tinguished from this and other species by Scutellum black pilose (N. Ontario)...... having a black or brown band occupying ...... fnipionen8i8 Curran. almost the apical half of the middle tibiae 6.-Femora wholly yellow.. excentricum Harris. At least the anterior femora black on the in both sexes. I have before me two para- basal third or more. vespiforme Linnaeus. types from Ithaca, New York. 7.-Apical abdominal segments with pale yellow hair dorsally ...... balyras Walker. Temnostoma trifasciata Robertson Apical abominal segments with almost all ROBERTSON, 1901, Can. Ent., XXXIII, p. 285. black hair dorsally . . 8. 8.-Posterior femora yellow on the basal fourth This species is rather rare in collections, or more; hind trochanters yellow ..... 9. although it is reported from many places in Posterior femora at most with the immedi- the United States and Southern Canada. ate base reddish; hind trochanters brown- Few of the published records actually refer ish; eyes of c contiguous (Europe) ..... been misidentified...... bombylan8 Fabricius. to it, the species having 9.-Middle tibiae wholly yellowish ...... 10. The original description was very brief and 2 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES [No. 1040 did not mention the color of the legs, al- tarsi and the basal third or more of the posterior though they are colored as in the female of femora yellowish. Pile yellow, black on the anterior tibiae and tarsi and on the apical two or balyras Walker. The chief character men- three segments of the remaining tarsi. tioned was the presence of only three pale Wings brownish in front of the spurious vein, pollinose fasciae on the abdomen although paler toward the base in front, cinereous hyaline there is usually an -indication of a fourth posteriorly. Squamae white. Halteres yellow. Abdomen black or blue-black, with yellow fascia on the base of the fifth segment. In fasciae; first segment and entire lateral margins a paper published by Malloch it was shining blue-black. Second segment opaque pointed out that the fourth and fifth ab- black on more than the basal half, with a scarcely dominal segments are black pilose in tri- arched, broad yellow fascia lying a little behind the front margin, narrowest in the middle, fa.sciata. This led to the recognition of all gently widening laterally. Third segment specimens having this character as tri- opaque on less than the basal half, the dull black fasciata, and has resulted in the misidenti- bands narrower than the yellow fascia which is fication of the species. narrowed and curved back toward the sides. Fourth segment with only a narrow opaque band T. trifasciata is easily recognized in the behind the more curved yellow fascia, opaque in female sex. There is a broad fascia of front of it. Pile black, yellowish on the first bright yellow pollen above the antennae, segment, basal third of the second and on the none of the other species possessing this sides of the fourth, the genitalia sometimes with some yellowish hairs intermixed with the black character. In the male the almost wholly ones. Venter black, the incisures narrowly reddish posterior legs will usually distin- yellowish. guish it but there are probably specimens FEMALE.-Front black or blue-black, mostly in which there are blackish bands. In both rather dulled, with indication of a spot of pale pollen in the middle of the anterior fourth, the sexes the pale pollinose fasciae on the an- sides broadly yellowish or cinereous pollinose to terior three-fifths of the mesonotum are the level of the anterior ocellus. Legs often as wider, less narrowly separated from each in the male but usually more extensively pale, in in one specimen the black of the middle and pos- other and are apparently longer than terior legs replaced by reddish. There is less acra, n. sp., the only species with which it opaque black behind the pollinose bands and is likely to be confused. there is a basal pollinose fascia on the fifth seg- The specimens before me are from widely ment which curves back toward the sides. separated regions: Illinois, Kansas, Mary- Sides of third and fifth segments pale pilose. land and Long Island, New York. TYPEs.-Holotype male, allotype female and female paratype, Avon, Conn., Temnostoma acra, new species June 6, 17, 18, 1929 (Curran); four males Black, the abdomen with three or four yellow and one female, Tuxedo, New York, June pollinose fasciae; wings brown in front; posterior femora and tibiae usually extensively black; 26, 30, 1928 (Curran); male and female, front of female without transverse pollinose Franconia, New Hampshire (Mrs. Slos- fascia. Length, 10 to 13 mm. son); female, Mount Washington, New MALE.-Head black, with yellowish cinereous Hampshire (Mrs. Slosson); two females, pollen, a triangle above the antennae, the space separating the upper and lower sections of the Hemlock Falls, New Jersey, May, June front, the front behind the anterior ocellus, the (A. J. Weidt); female, Douglas Co., Kan- cheeks and a broad median facial vitta that ex- sas, June 12, 1923 (W. J. Brown); forty- pands above, bare and shining. Pile pale yel- three specimens of both sexes from Canada: low. Eyes rather widely separated. Antennae pale brownish yellow. Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and British Thorax black, rather dull, with yellow polli- Columbia, and one specimen from Penn- nose markings as follows: the humeri, a stripe sylvania. extending over the suture, usually a vitta above the wings, rarely a spot in front of the sides of the scutellum and a broad stripe on the posterior Temnostoma obscurum Loew border of the mesonotum. Pile yellow, on the LoEw, 1864, Berl. Ent. Zeitschr., VIII, p. 67. disc of the dorsum mixed with short black hairs which predominate behind the suture. This species resembles balyras Walker Legs black or brown; trochanters, tips of the in having the pile on the apical abdominal femora, basal fourth to half of the front and in middle tibiae, the basal two and one-half seg- segments pale in color but differs having ments of the posterior tarsi, the middle tibiae and a tuberculate face in the male. The type 19391 SPECIES OF TEMNOSTOMA RELATED TO BOMBYLANS LINNE 3 came from western Canada and there is no yellow) and seem to be slightly more robust. doubt that it differs markedly from the It is possible that they might represent a common eastern species. The female is different and undescribed species. at present unknown but I have before me I am indebted to Mr. R. C. Shannon for two specimens from northern Ontario that information concerning the type of ob- may belong here. They differ from balyras scurum, as well as for other information in having the front black pilose (instead of concerning the various species.