BY G. H. HARDY. 535 



is about as long as the third, and the radial vein issuing from the first basal cell, 

 agree with this species. 



Characters. — This species, in which the female is usually black and the head 

 red and the male brown or somewhat blackish, never with red, has the antennae 

 with the first and second joints together about equal in length to the third, the iirst 

 rather long, and the second joint al)out one quarter the lengih of the third. The 

 ladial vein invr.riably issues from the first basal cell. 



D.escription. — (?. The head is black, the eyes are contiguous and have a little 

 •pubescence. The antennae are black, the first joint is long, about three times the 

 length of the second, the second joint is about as long as broad, the third 'joint is 

 four times the lengfli of the second. [The text-fig. 1, in the Proc. Roy. Soc. 

 Tasm., 1920, ji. 35. shows the antennae drawn from a micro-slide.] The thorax 

 and scutellum are black and have some black pubescence and depressed yellowish 

 tomentum. The abdomen is black and contains denser pubescence; there are 

 seven segments and exposed genitalia which conform in shape with those of other 

 species of Beridinae. The anterior coxae are black, and the remainder of the legs 

 are yellowish, slightly stained fuscous. The wings are obscurely fumed and the 

 halteres are similarly coloured. 



S. The head is red with some short pubescence, the ocelli and the eyes are 

 black : the latter have a little pubescence. The antennae are black, sometimes red 

 at the base, and conform in proportions to those of the male. The thorax and 

 scutellum are black with short pubescence, and sometimes tracings of lighter mark- 

 ings can be seen laterally. The abdomen is depressed, black, and usually with a 

 thin light border at the extreme lateral edges. There are seven abdominal seg- 

 ments, the ovipositor (the eighth segment) bearing a pair of eerci; in the speci- 

 men described and illustrated here the ovipositor contains a small, inflated, yellow, 

 ventral .sack which can be detected bulging on each side. The abdomen contain'^ 

 short pubescence. The legs are variable in colour, they are usually reddish and 

 n uch stained with black ; in the specimen illustrated the anterior coxae are red — 

 the intermediate and posterior coxae black; the trochanters are reddish, the basal 

 half of the femora is black, the apical half red; the middle third of the tibiae is 

 black, the base and apex reddish ; the tarsi have the base of the first and second 

 joints red, the pulvilli and the basal half of the claws red, the remainder black. 

 Tlie wings are rather strongly fumed and the halteres are similarly coloured. 



Hah. — New South "Wales: Sydney. (51 c?. 20 ?.) Specimens have also been 

 seen from Victoria, but are not available for study at the time of writing this 

 paper. Macquart adds Tasmania as a locality, but specimens from this State 

 do not seem to be represented in recent collections. 



Metoponia gemina, n.sp. (Plate xxix., figs. 1-4. ) 



Characters. — In this species the female has a red head and the remainder 

 is usually blackish, with a brownish scutellum; the male is brown or blackish with 

 a lighter brown scutellum, and also often the second and third abdominal seg- 

 ments are of a lighter brown dorsally. The first joint of the antennae is but 

 little longer than the second, and the third joint four times the length of the 

 second; the radial vein of the wdng branches from beyond the base of the cubital 

 vein. The head differs in shape from that of M. riihriceps when seen dorsally. 

 the face appears to be more prominent. 



Description. — S. The head is red, with the ocellar tubercle and the eyes 



