408 Annals of the South African Museum. 



and insular, East to Celebes. But the genus is more fully developed 

 in Africa. 



Forms that have been considered as racially distinct from the Asiatic 

 A. panorpoides exist, in the vast region between Algeria, Delagoa Bay 

 and Madagascar, and a second very distinct species (trijidum, Kby.) is 

 known from tropical West Africa. 



ACISOMA PANORPOIDES AscALAPHOiDEs (Rambur, 1842). 



S. Afr. Mus. : 1 <J, 1 9 , Lorenco Marques (25, 27 . ix . 1911) ; 2 , 

 Ovainboland Otymbora. Coll. Ris : 12 <$,8 $ , ibid. (11 . ii, 10, 11, 

 17, 25 . iii . 1911). 



$ . Labiiun and labrum whitish. Face and froiis light blue, 

 fronto-nasal suture and base of frons broadly black. Thorax light 

 greenish blue with an intricate pattern of deep black : black lines 

 on medial, humeral, lateral and latero-ventral sutures, antehumeral, 

 mesepimeral and metepiraeral lines, these lines of variable breadth, 

 sometimes interrupted, mostly with an undulating longitudinal anas- 

 tomosis. Legs robust, black, narrowly lined with bluish or yellowish 

 extei'nally. Abdomen light blue with black markings : mid -dorsal 

 longitudinal band; lateral bands, trilobate ventral spots and trans- 

 verse carinae on inflated basal segments ; latero-ventral band on 

 segments 5-7 ; segments 8-10 wholly black. Superior appendages 

 whitish above, black beneath, inferior appendage black. 



Wings hyaline, very slightly and gradually fumose at tips ; a very 

 small yellowish spot at base of hind wings. Pterostigma whitish 

 yellow. 



9 . Similar to male in outline, slightly more robust. Frons 

 olivaceous, black only at base, instead of an anterior black line a 

 ferruginous shade. Thorax greenish or olivaceous ; the pattern of 

 male only indicated by rather diffuse darker olivaceous or ferruginous 

 shades, often interrupted and sometimes quite indistinct. Abdomen 

 olivaceous ; dark pattern similarly reduced, blackish only at the 

 carinae and on terminal segments. Legs mostly olivaceous, with 

 interrupted blackish lines. Wings as in male. 



cJ, Abd. 20, Mw. 21, pt. < 3 mm. to 22, 24, 3'5. $, 19, 21, 3 to 

 22, 25, 3-5. 



The series of specimens here recorded illustrates an East African 

 form, named A. variegaium by Kirby and Sjostedt (specimens from 

 Nyasaland and from Kilimandjaro respectively), the writer's form B 

 of the subspecies. Its distinctive features are comparatively large 

 size, dilatation of fifth abdominal segment very slight. 



