306 Transactions. 



yellowish-green, the latter and the face clothed with short pale hairs ; 

 occiput tawny in ground-colour but with blackish and greyish reflec- 

 tions and clothed with delicate pale hairs ; proboscis and palpi brownish- 

 yellow. 



Dorsum of thorax clothed with short brownish hairs ; shiny bronzy 

 and broadly margined with yellowish-green on each side anterior to wings ; 

 humeri yellowish-green ; alar regions rather brownish ; scutellum yellowish- 

 green to tawny, thinly clothed with short black hairs ; pleurae clothed with 

 pale hairs, greenish-yellow except for anterior margin of mesopleurae and 

 upper and lower parts of sternopleurae (that is, sternopleurae with a 

 longitudinal band of greenish-yellow). Femora tawny, brownish to black 

 apically, particularly the posterior pair ; clothed with short black bristle- 

 like hairs apically, but with delicate pale hairs below basally ; anterior 

 and middle tibiae tawny with minute black apical bristles and clothed with 

 short tawny hairs ; posterior tibiae brownish-yellow and apically brownish 

 to black ; clothed with short, bristle-like black hairs ; tarsi with a short 

 golden brush and minute black bristles beneath, otherwise clothed as 

 posterior tibiae ; anterior and middle tarsi tawny, with darker reflections, 

 the posterior brownish to black. Wings clear, the stigma slightly clouded, 

 veins pale-brown ; squamae tawny ; halteres tawny to greenish-yellow. 



Abdomen (fig. 37) shiny brownish-black, clothed with short blackish 

 hairs, longer and tawny along sides of 1st and 2nd segments ; 1st segment 

 tawny ; 2nd and 5th with a pair of broad tawny or orange spots ; 3rd 

 and 4th each with a tawny or orange transverse band, the posterior margin 

 of each band being deeply notched and the anterior somewhat sinuated ; 

 posterior angles of 5th segment indistinctly tawny ; 6th segment rather 

 brownish on each side. 



The male is smaller and more slender than the female, the markings 

 are darker, and the abdominal spots more oblique ; the genitalia are 

 tawny. 



Pre-adult Stages. — The full-grown larva (Plate XL VIII, fig. 2) measures 

 12-5 mm. in length ; it is greenish -yellow in colour, and the soft corrugated 

 skin is semitransparent, showing the organs within the body ; on the 

 sides of each segment is a short leg-like projection, while on the terminal 

 segment a pair of approximated, testaceous respiratory organs project 

 upward. The larvae are to be found in considerable numbers living in 

 company with the larvae of L. decessum in the gum-fluid which collects 

 in the leaf-bases of the Maori flax (Phormium tenax), where, they feed upon 

 the larvae of a Chironomid, and to a less extent upon those of L. decessum. 

 After nightfall they frequently leave the gum-fluid and crawl about the 

 leaves of the Phormium in search of flax-grubs (larvae of Xanthorhoe 

 praefectata). They are also to be found upon the leaves of the cabbage- 

 tree (Cordyline australis), where they attack the larvae of Yenusia verri- 

 culata. Pupation takes place on the dead flax and cabbage-tree leaves ; 

 the pupa (Plate XLVIII, fig. 3), which measures 8-5 mm. in length, is club- 

 shaped and elongated, being strongly arched anteriorly but more or less 

 flattened and tapering posteriorly; it is of a light-brown colom, with a series 

 of longitudinal dark-brown stripes running the full length of the body ; 

 a pair of respiratory organs project from the posterior end. 



cJ. Length, 6 mm. $. Length, 8 mm. 



Plesiotype: No. 1237, D. M. 



Habitat. — Throughout New Zealand. The adults are very abundant 

 from August to April in the vicinity of flax-bushes and cabbage-trees. 



