﻿143 



with a large apical impression on the rig'ht side; ovipositor of 

 the female nearly straight and not very long. Length 3 mm. 

 (PI. V, fig. 2, VII, fig. 4 and q.) 



HAB. Bundaberg. Queensland; bred freely from puparia on 

 the leaves of Melaleuca. 



II. P. beiieficieiis, sp. nov. 



Head with the front and face covered with glistening white 

 tomentum, in the female black, bare and shining in front of 

 the ocelli, posteriorly with greyish white tomentum on each side 

 and fuscous between. Antennae black or piceous, the third 

 joint acuminate and strongly produced at the apex, variable in 

 colour usually more or less yellowish, but sometimes Avholly 

 dark or wholly yellow, in the female often of the latter colour, 

 but even in this sex it is sometimes dark. 



Thorax with thin fuscous tomentum, in front laterally and 

 the pleura more or less grey, the metanotum with denser grey 

 or whitish tomentum; the scutellum with extremely fine mar- 

 ginal hairs, the surface more or less shining, in some aspects at 

 least; halteres pale, dark at base. Legs black, tip of femora, 

 the tibiae and tarsi (except the apical joint) yellow, the tibiae 

 more or less black or infuscate in part. Wings in the male dis- 

 tinctly smoky, clearer in the female, neuration blackish, paler 

 towards base of wing, stigma distinct, obscure brown, about aj^ 

 long as the fourth costal segment, small cross-vein opposite the 

 apex of the auxiliary, and at about the basal third of the upper 

 side of the discal cell. 



Abdomen black, often somewhat shining in the male, and 

 clothed with short sparse hairs, at the sides with greyish white 

 tomentum, which in fresh specimens also forms a band on the 

 basal segment; some or most of the segments generally with 

 depressions of varying form and often irregular; hypopygium 

 large, with a transverse basal impression and with a shining 

 hairless lobe on the right side, which extends beneath to the 

 genital armature itself. In the female the abdomen is generally 

 like that of the male, black and more or less shining, with white 

 tomentum laterally, and more or less evidently on the dorsum 

 of the first or of the two basal segments, the surface usually 

 with few or no depressions, the ovipositor straight; basal seg- 

 ment in both sexes with no trace of a line of bristles laterally. 

 Length 2.25-3.25 mm. (PI. V, fig. 3; VI, fig. 3.) 



