1899.] 259 



A NEW SPECIES OF STENOSMYLUS FROM NEW ZEALAND. 



BY ROBERT McLACHLAN, f.R.S., &c. 



For this very pretty, and apparently very variable, little Stenos- 

 myliis T am indebted to Mr. G. V. Hudson, F.E.S., who has done, and 

 is doing, much to increase our knowledge of the Neuroptera of New 

 Zealand. 



Stenosmtlus SxELLiE, sp. nov. 



Of the form and structure of <S. inclstis, McL., and S. citrinus, McL., but 

 nearly one-half smaller. 



Head and thorax (including antennae and palpi) dull reddish-brown varying to 

 fuscescent, the face and basal portion of tlie antennae often paler. Pronotura usually 

 darker on the sides, about one-half longer than broad, narrower than the head, the 

 lateral mai-gins nearly parallel, a deep transverse sulcus shortly before the posterior 

 end ; it is rather sparingly clothed with somewhat bristly yellowish hairs. Legs 

 yellowish, somewhat dingy, with pale hairs ; occasionally (especially in the ? ?) 

 the base and apex of the femora and of the tibiae, and the tips of the tarsal joints, 

 are brownish or fuscescent. Abdomen blackish in the dry insect : in one sex (pro- 

 bably the ? ) at the ventral apex there is a pair of closely applied geniculated and 

 articulated valves clothed with pale hairs ; the rest of the abdomen with only a few 

 scattered hairs on the sutures. 



Wings — in the anterior the ground colour may be termed pale brownish-yellow 

 (varying much in intensity), in which are large whitish spaces, viz., three large sub- 

 quadrate spots on the inner margin ; a large, badly limited and very irregular 

 discal space beyond the middle of the wing, usually connected with the third spot 

 on the inner margin ; and a nearly circular spot below, and slightly beyond, the 

 pterostigma ; the spots on the inner margin are separated by dark smokv-brown 

 spaces, and the other pale markings are margined with dark smoky-brown ; the 

 inner margin narrowly dark smoky-brown, with whitish interruptions in the excised 

 apical portion ; the costal edge is also alternately whitish and dark brown ; the 

 pterostigma very dark brown, with a paler spot near its inner end (these markings 

 give the wings a prettily variegated appearance) : neuration mostly pale, but whitish 

 in the pale spaces, and with the gradate nervules, and some other portions, blackish ; 

 costal nervules mostly simple ; sector with about nine branches. Posterior wings 

 pale brownish-yellow, without darker markings (except the pterostigma), but with 

 three large whitish spaces, one at the anal angle, one discal beyond the middle, 

 and one below the pterostigma. 



Length of body, 9-10 mm. Expanse, 30-32 mm. 



Hah. : Wainuiomata River, about 17 miles from Wellington, New 

 Zealand, November, 1898 (Hudson, No. 57). I have examined four 

 examples. Named (by request) after Mr. Hudson's little daughter 

 Stella. 



Var. CONNEXUS, var. nov. 



Differs from the type form in the whitish markings of the anterior wings being 

 absent, but their position is indicated by the dark markings which remain. The 



