BY WALTER W. FKOGGATT. 36T 



PsYCHOPSis MiMiCA, Newman. 



Newni,, Entomologist, p. 415, 1840-2; Hemerohius mimictis^ 

 Walk., Brit. Mus. Cat. Neurop. p. 279. 



This beautiful insect when at rest, with its wings drooped down 

 on the sides of the short cylindrical body, the head tucked under 

 and almost hidden from view by the long hairs springing from 

 the front of the thorax, is wonderfully like some of the homop- 

 terous insects belonging to the genus FJata. 



Length of body |; expanse of wings 2^ inches. 



General colour dull pale yellow, thickly clothed with buff- 

 coloured hairs- Head short, turned down in front. Eyes large, 

 dark green, ocelli in line between the eyes. Antennae short,, 

 slender, composed of 35 short cylindrical joints clothed with fine 

 hairs. Jaws large, reddish-brown. Wings large ; forewings 

 swelling out in front, rounded at the tips, somewhat arcuate 

 behind; hindwings more slender at the base, but rounded at apex;, 

 both pairs of wings thickly covered with a network of fine 

 nervures fringed with fine buff-brown or Avhite hairs, so that the 

 whole of the wing surface is covered with downy hairs, and thickly 

 fringed on the outer margins. Forewings blotched with irregular 

 red and brown spots, and delicate brown and black lines and 

 wavy markings; hindwings with a single brown blotch in the 

 centre. 



Newman described the type, which is now in the British 

 Museum, in three lines, but he gave a Avoodcut of the insect on 

 the title-page of the volume. His specimen was received from 

 Adelaide, S.A. Though not a common insect, it has a wide 

 range over the eastern and southern portions of Australia. 



In the middle of December a living female was sent to me b}^ 

 a correspondent at Muswellbrook, which while in transit laid three 

 bright green oval eggs. These were placed in a glass jar, and 

 three weeks later two hatched out and the larvse were found 

 crawling about trying to escape. When placed in a watch glass- 

 with some larval psyllids and aphides, they immediately seized 

 these with their long slender mandibles and soon sucked them 



