﻿137 

 DESCRIPTION OF SPECIES. 



In the descriptions of the species not mucli stress need be 

 placed on the exact colours of the pale tomentose spots or 

 bands, whether whitish, greyish, or slightly flavescent as they 

 are hard to discriminate and not constant The same may be 

 said of the measurements, which vary much in some species and 

 are su'bject to error owing to contraction or 'curvature of the 

 body after death. 



A. Australian Species. 



I. P. cruciator, sp. nov. 



Head black; between the ocelli and antennae, and the face 

 below these, almost entirely covered with white tomentum in 

 the female, as is the whole front and face in the male; poster- 

 iorly with fuscous tomentum, becoming grey at the sides, and 

 finely ciliated. Antennae with the two basal joints black or pice- 

 ous; the third yellow, sometimes sordid or obscured, in the male 

 pointed at the tip, in the female more strongly and acuminately 

 produced. In the latter sex even the basal antennal joints are 

 sometimes yellowish, though possibly only in immature ex- 

 amples. 



Thorax above covered with fuscous tomentum, greyer on the 

 metathorax and pleura; scutellum with a sparse marginal fringe 

 of very short fine hairs; halteres }ellow, blackish or fuscous at 

 base. Wings subinfuscate, stigma yellowish brown, third and 

 fourth costal segments subequal. Legs with the coxae, femora, 

 the apical joint of tarsi, and tips of claws, black or dark; the 

 rest of tarsi, the trochanters, the apex and usually the base of 

 femora, as well as the tibiae yellow; the latter often more or 

 less darkened or 'brownish in parts. The hairs on the legs are 

 extremely short, and placed in rows. 



Abdomen covered with fuscous tomentum, more or less grey 

 or yellowish grey on the apical margins of the segments, or at 

 least on the sides of some of the apical segments in the male; 

 in the female the abdomen usually has a distinct pattern, the 

 grey tomentum on the third, fourth and fifth segments, form- 

 ing a wedge-shaped lateral mark, leaving a large triangular 

 fuscous area on the disc, the second segment being grey with 

 a fuscous discal spot. Basal segment with a line of 3-5 con- 



