DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME AUSTRALIAN FLIES BELONGING 

 TO THE DIFTEBA BBACHYCERA. 



G. H. Hardy. 



(Plate xxxvi. and Figure 1.) 



This paper contains the descriptions of a new genus and some new 

 species of flies from Queensland, the material representing a portion of 

 various recent collections from that State which I have been able to 

 examine. I have also tignred the allotype specimen of Pelecorrhi/iichus 

 fulrit.^ Ricardo, and added a reference under the same genus which was 

 omitted in a previous paper. To Mr. D. J. Farrell I am indebted for 

 assistance in the preparation of Plate xxxvi., figures 1, 2. 



STRATIOMYIID^. 



Genus Pachygaster Meigen. 



Status. — The two species placed here [)robably belong to the genus 

 Eupachyyuster, which was proposed by Kertesz,i as they are to be distin- 

 guished by the following characters : — 



The scutellnm is about half as long as broad, and has a semicircular 

 outer mai'gin on which are situated many minute spines ; in the male, 

 however, the scutellum is triangular in shape, rounded at the apex, and 

 slightly inclined. In the female the facets of the eyes are of uniform 

 size, and in the male they are much smaller below than above, but there 

 is no sharp contrast between the two sizes. 



I am unable to satisfy myself that Eupachyyader Kertesz and 

 Neopaclnjyaster Austen are generically distinct from F achy y aster Meigen, 

 and without seeing both sexes one cannot place a new species very 

 satisfactorily. In the present case the charactei's certainly come nearest 

 to those given by Kertesz for the genus Enpachyy aster. 



Dr. E. W. Ferguson has a female which he captured on a window of 

 his residence at Roseville, near Sydney, and it is identical with P. ivliitei 

 Hardy. A male and a female of a second species were taken by him in 

 the same place, but the male has the scutellum inclined to a considei'able 

 extent, and both sexes differ from P. v-liitei in various other respects. 



In the meanwhile, until more material is available, it seems advisable 

 to retain the genus I'achyyaster in the wide sense adopted by most 

 authors. 



Key to the Australian species of the genus Far/iyyaster. 



1. Female with the thorax and abdomen evenly and densely punctate ; scutellum 



with forty or more minute spines whitei Hardy. 



Thorax of the female with censiderably less and smaller punctures than those on 

 the abdomen, which is densely punctate ; scutellum with about thirty 

 minute spines nitens sp. nov. 



1 Kertesz- Congr. Int. Ent., ii., 1911, p. 31. 



