108 EECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



The Tipiilid hereafter described is intimately related to those 

 species included in the genus Lim^wbia — in fact it is a modified 

 Limnohia. The only tangil)lo differences occur in the wings. 

 The genus Dafanoptera was proposed by Osten-Sacken in 1881 

 for four species previously desci'ibed by Walker under the title 

 Limnobia* which had been collected in New Guinea and the neigh- 

 bouring islands by Wallace. Osten-Sacken points outf that, "The 

 peculiar, although only secondary character, upon which this genus 

 ( Dapanoptera) is established, is found in the wings, which being 

 deeply colored, have a conspicuous hyaline spot at the end of the 

 first longitudinal vein ; upon reaching this spot the first vein 

 becomes abruptly evanescent ; both its ends (that is the cross- 

 vein, running towards the costa, and the real end of the first 

 vein turned towards the second) are placed witliin that hyaline 

 spot and are colorless and very weakly marked, sometimes im- 

 perceptible. The known species have a supernumerary cross-vein 

 in the first posterior cell, beyond the discal (a great deal beyond 

 in D. j)lenipennis, and only a little in the other species.)" The 

 wing of D. plenipennis also greatly differs from the other known 

 species in being conspicuously undulatory on its posterior border 

 and in having the second and third longitudinal, and also the 

 first vein issuing from the discal cell, strongly undulatory. D. 

 richmondiana appears to agree very well with the remaining 

 three species in general plan of venation and regularity of contour 

 of the wing ; with antennae, male forceps, dentate claws and 

 the auxilary vein as in Limnobia. 



The discovery of Dapanoptera in the tropical jungle of northern 

 New South Wales adds another interesting instance to the numer- 

 ous evidences of a former Papuan invasion ; and, in passing, the 

 occurrence of Libnotes may also be mentioned. To quote Hedley, | 

 " The types encountered by a traveller in tropical Queensland 

 (and also northern New South Wales), or rather in that narrow 

 belt of tropical Queensland hemmed in l^etween the Cordillera 

 and the Pacific, all wear a foreign aspect. Among mammals may 

 be instanced the cuscus and tree kangaroo ; among reptiles, the 

 crocodile, the Rana or true frog, and the tree snakes ; among 

 birds, the cassowary and rifle birds ; among butterflies, the Ornithop- 

 tera ; among plants, the wild banana, oiange and mangosteen, the 

 rhododendron, the epiphytic orchids, and the palms ; so that in 

 the heart of a great Queensland ' scrub,' a naturalist could scarcely 

 answer from his surroundings whether he were in New Guinea or 

 Australia." And he adds, " It may be supposed that late in the 

 Tertiary epoch, Torres Straits, now only a few fathoms deep, was 



* Journ. Linn. Soc. Zool. v., p. 230, (18G1) ; vii., p. 202, (1864) ; viii., pp. 

 103, lOi, (1865). 



t Studies on Tipulidfc, ii., Berl. Entoin. Zeits., xxxi., p. 178, (1887). 

 j Proc. Austr. Assoc. Adv. Sci.j Adelaide, v., p. 415, (1893). 



