594 



ON THE GENUS DIPHLRBIA, 



for these latter, in the hope that, by turning one of them over, I 

 might find the larva clinging to the underside. During two 

 visits to Heathcote with a friend, our united efforts succeeded in 

 overturning several large boulders, but without any sign of the 

 larva; if it were there, it either got washed off in the swirl of 

 water, or succeeded in escaping before we overturned the rock. 

 However, fortune at last came my way. While dredging with a 

 flat, triangular net along the smooth rock-bottom of the creek at 

 Medlow, i'Aue Mountains, just above the lake, on November 13th, 

 1909, I dislodged a small flat slab of rock into my net. On the 

 underside of this I found a well-grown larva of B. lestoides This 

 is the only larva of this species that I have ever found. A figure 

 of it is given in Plate xix., fig.l. I kept this in a small jar 

 until the beginning of January, 1910. It fed well, and usually 

 sat still at the base of a stick. It showed very little activity, and 

 its huge caudal gills seemed to be very cumbersome, and much in 

 the way when it was moving. About the beginning of December 

 it changed its skin. When it appeared to be full-fed, I killed it 

 with chloroform, carefully extracted the gizzard, and mounted it 

 in alcohol. A description of this larva is given below. 



On December 14th, 1910, during my collecting trip to the 

 north-west of New South Wales, I visited Rocky Creek, near 

 Caroda, on the edge of the Nandewar Ranges. This is a splendid 

 collecting ground, and I found the beautiful B. nympho'ides, n.sp., 

 in sufficient numbers to lead me to hope that I might obtain the 

 larva. At the point where I struck the creek, just above some 

 big falls, the bed consisted of solid basaltic rock, with huge 

 vertical-sided boulders standing up in many places. I carefully 

 searched the sides and crevices of these rocks, and obtained two 

 cast-skins, but no living nymphs Further up, the character of 

 the creek changed, and I found a long stretch of clear water 

 rippling over small rocks and pebbles. Here the creek was over- 

 hung with green trees and bushes. In such a setting, this 

 glorious new Diphlehia, resting on rocks, skimming the surface of 

 the water, or perching, several in a row, along the outstretched, 

 bare branches of shrubs, made a picture that I shall never forget. 

 On one horizontal bough, I counted no less than seven brilliantly- 



