Rhagio gracilis (Johnson 1912)

Rhagio gracilis Johnson
1912. Leptis gracilis Johnson, Psyche, xix, p. 3.
Yellowish; abdomen slender, banded with black; legs long and slender ; eyes of male widely separated; anal cell closed and petiolate.
Male. — Length, 6 mm. Head: Eyes almost as widely separated as in female — about one and one-half times the width of the ocellar tubercle; above the antennae are two fairly well defined tubercles; front, ocellar tubercle, and face blackish, light gray pollinose; palpi, and proboscis yellowish, face on sides and palpi with sparse pale hairs; antennae yellowish, arista black.
Thorax: Mesonotum yellowish, the whole disc tinged more or less with brownish and with several fine more or less definite darker lines due chiefly to rows of fine black hairs; pleura pale yellowish, more or less light gray pollinose; black hairs somewhat longer and more numerous on sides of mesonotum, and on scutellum which is dirty yellow in color; halteres pale yellowish.
Abdomen: Slender, yellowish, each segment with a broad black basal band except first which has a black spot below scutellum; clothed with short pale hairs on the yellow parts, with black ones on the black bands, longer on lateral margin. Legs: Pale yellow; tarsi slightly infuscated, a black spot on underside at tip of trochanters.
Wings: Membrane hyaline; veins pale brownish; stigmal spot obsolete; anal cell closed before the margin, the petiole often one-half as long as the distance between the fork of Cu and the petiole.
Female. — Length, 6 mm. Like the male except as follows: Front slightly wider — about twice width of ocellar tubercle; frontal tubercles above antennae less prominent; first abdominal segment sometimes with a complete basal black band.
Specimens Examined: 29; 13 males, 16 females.
Maine: 2 9, Bar Harbor, July 22 and 30, 1919, [B. S, N. H.; but there are additional specimens in that collection]. 38
New Hampshire: 1 9 , Mount Washington, 3000 ft. July 28, [B. S. N. H.]. 1 a
1 9 , White Mountain, July 1874, (Osten Sacken), [M. C. Z.]. 1 d 3 9 , Franconia, (A. T. Slosson), [U. S. N. M.]. 1 9 , White Mountains, (Morrison), [U. S. N. M.].
2 d Glen House, July 23 and 26, 1915, [B. S. N. H.].
Vermont: i d i 9 , Amsden, July 10, 1908, [B. S. N. H.]. 2 d Mount Ascutney July 11, 1908, [B. S. N. H.].
Massachusetts: i d Mount Greylock, August 8, 1907, [B. S. N. H.]. 1 9, Chester, August 7, 1912.
New York: i <?, Dug Mountain, August, (D. B. Young), [N. Y. S. M.]. 1 d Upper Ausable, July 30, 1920, (J. Bequaert), [A. M. N. H.]. 1 <f, Trenton Falls, July 1874, (Osten Sacken), [M. C. Z.]. 1 9, Wells, Aug. 6, 1918, (D. B. Young), [N. Y. S. M.]. 1 d Newport, July 7, 1907, (D. B. Young), [N. Y. S. M.]. 1 9, Speculator, August 10, 1909, (D. B. Young), [N. Y. S. M.]. 1 cf, 1 9, Colden, August x 3. !9 T 3i (M. C. Van Duzee), [Van Duzee]. 1 9, Olean, August 5, (M. C. Van Duzee), [Van Duzee]. 1 9 , Dayton, June 29, (M. C. Van Duzee), [Van Duzee], 1 d Rock City, July 1, 1916, [C. U.].
This interesting species should probably form the type of a new genus because of the widely separated eyes in the male. Although no such condition exists in any other known genus of the subfamily Rhagioninae I hesitate to erect a genus based on a character of the male alone. The closed and petiolate anal cell alone in both sexes would be striking enough to remove this species from the genus