128 Annals of ill f South Africa)/ Museum. 



from Soutli Africa, but widely spread. A male specimen from Barber- 

 ton, Transvaal, December, 1911 (H. Edwards) ; a female from Hex 

 River (Cape), January, 1883 (L. Peringuey) ; Otjivarongo (Damara- 

 land), January, 1920 (E. W. E. Tucker). 



VILLA ARGENTINA, sp. nov., g . 



A very peculiar, small species, distinguished by the glittering 

 silvery bands on the abdomen and at its apex. 



Type , a single specimen from Hex River, December, 1884 (L. 

 Peringuey). 



Length of body 8 - 5 mm.; of wing 7'5 mm. Head black; occiput 

 tolerably shining, with abundant white scales near the middle of the 

 eyes, with short dark hairs above and with greyish central fringe ; 

 post-vertical furrow narrow and deep, the ovate, prominent ocellar 

 tubercle being placed just in front of it. Eyes dark brown, with the 

 upper areolets a little enlarged, the indentation less developed, but 

 the bisecting line very long ; frous a little shining, about as broad at 

 vertex as the ocellar tubercle, clothed with erect black hairs, and 

 with scarce greyish cells near the eyes and on the frontal sides. Face 

 rounded, not prominent, densely clothed with short black hairs and 

 with abundant greyish scales. Antennae entirely black ; the two first 

 joints very short, of equal length, the first with black hairs ; third 

 joint Avith the basal discoidal part not longer but broader than the 

 second joint, and the styliform part very thin, long, filiform, about as 

 long as one and a half times the remainder, ending in a minute 

 bristle. Mouth-opening naiTOw ; genae linear ; proboscis black, short, 

 thick. Thorax and scutellum entirely black, faintly shining, finely 

 punctulate; they have very minute, scattered, yellow scales and rather 

 long whitish hairs in front and on the sides, these last whiter and 

 forming a not well-indicated stripe ; all the bristles are of a pale 

 yellowish colour, those of the scutellum being darker. Pleurae grey- 

 dusted, with whitish hairs, even on the metapleura ; squamae dirty 

 yellowish, with a brown border and glittering silvery fringe ; halteres 

 dark yellowish, with paler knob. Abdomen like the thorax, but narrowly 

 red on the sides of the two first segments ; the long hairs on the 

 middle of the tergites are scattered, whitish near the base and blackish 

 at end ; the hairs of the sides are long, whitish on the 1st and 2nd, 

 black and scaly on the 3rd, quite snow-white on the 4th, black and 

 scaly on the 5th and 6th segments ; the 7th segment is entirely 

 clothed with long, silvery, glittering scales directed outwardly. On the 

 base of the 2nd segment there is a narrow, less distinct band of 



