102 



KECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



Legs. — Rather long; femora smooth, 

 and furnished with two moderately long 

 apical spines or bristles ; each tibia is 

 notched on the upper surface, but this 

 character is not constant in point of num- 

 ber of notches, one of the types having 

 two notches and another three ; from 

 each notch two long bristles project ; 

 apical extremities broad and furnished 

 with six long bristles ; tarsal claws ex- 

 ceedingly long, smooth. 



Abdomen. — Globose, convex. Of the 

 three type specimens the postei'ior ex- 

 tremity of the abdomen in two of them 

 is rounded (PL xxiii., fig. 1), and the 

 Fig. 25. genital aperture is not visible ; in the 



¥.chidnophaga amlnlaus. third example the posterior tergite is ex- 

 cavated ; and the genital aperture distinct (figs. 25, 26). 



Ohii. — This species has aroused much in- 

 terest amongst students who have devoted 

 special attention to the Siphonaptra, and it 

 has generally been regarded as " practi- 

 cally unknown." Some correspondence 

 has recently passed between Mr. Carl 

 Baker and myself in respect of this species, 

 in the course of which I have supplied 

 that gentleman with rough sketches of the 

 type. This with a view to settling the 

 exact sj'stematic position of E. ambulant. 

 In acknowledging my communication and 

 sketches Mr. Baker says : — " The sketches 

 were of the utmost service to me for one 

 thing at least. They enabled me to de- 

 finitely place Echidnophaga in its proper 

 family. Its greatly shortened thoracic 



segments proclaim it of the Rhyncho- Echid)wphaga ambulans. 

 prionidpe (8arc(ipsyllid{e), unmistakeabl)-. 



It is very near to the common chicken flea ( Argopsylla gallinacea) 

 a.nd indeed I very much suspect that it may belong to the same 

 genus." 



Family, PULICID^. 

 Genus Crratophyllus, Curtis. 



8ome time ago I published a short paper entitled " Notes on 



Fig. 26. 



