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A NEW GENUS OF CYRTID.^ {DIPT.) FROM NEW ZEALAND. 

 BY BARON C. R. OSTEN SACKEN, Ph.D., Hon. F.E.S. 



Three genera of Cyrtidje — Philopota, W ., Thyllis, Er. {Megaly- 

 bus, Westw.), and Terphis, Er. — form a very remarkable group 

 (Philopoti7ia, Schiu.), distinguished from all the other genera of the 

 family, and, ;is far as I know, from all other Diptera, by an extra- 

 ordinary development of the so-called prothoracic humeral lobes, 

 which, in this case, are contiguous in front of the thorax, while in the 

 other Diptera they are separated by a broad interval. 



In his " Elementary Manual of N". Z. Entomology," London, 

 1892, Gr. V. Hudson, of Wellington, N. Z.,has published a new Cyrtid, 

 which he called Acrocera longirostris, and of which, at my request, he 

 very kindly communicated to me a specimen. In this species I 

 recognised a new genus belonging to the above-mentioned remarkable 

 group, and of which, although not a specialist in Cyrtidce, I do not 

 hesitate to publish a description. 



Helle*, gen. nov. 



May be briefly described as a Philopota, Wied., with the venation of Thyllis, 

 Erichson. As the only species of Philopota in my possession is P. murina, Lw., 

 from Asia Minor, I shall coQipare Helle longirostris, Huds., with it, and refer at the 

 same time to Loew's description and figures of murina (Stett. Ent. Zeitung, 1844, 

 p. 162, tab. ii, figs. 17—21). 



Eyes glabrous, contiguous above the antennse as far as the ocellar triangle. 

 Three ocelli. AntenncB inserted about the middle of the head (seen in profile), very 

 small ; second joint incrassate at base, and attenuated beyond it in the shape of an 

 arista-like prolongation. Face elongate-triangular (Loew, fig. 19). Proboscis elong- 

 ate, about double the length of the longitudinal diameter of the head (the end of it 

 in my specimen may be broken off, because Mr. Hudson's figure represents it as 

 much longer). Hind-part of the head swollen, especially below, towards the cheeks 

 (in P. murina it is rather the upper part of the occiput which is swollen, Lw., 

 fig. 18). 



Thorax gibbous (less, however, than in P. murina) ; prothoracic lobes con- 

 tiguous along a rather long suture, on both sides of which they expand hindwards, 

 80 that the hind margin of the prothorax shows a deep emargination (Lw., fig. 17). 

 The structure of the prse- and post-alar lobes is very like that of P. murina, only 

 their surface is more convex ; a distinct little ridge (also described by Loew in P. 

 murina) runs from the root of the wing towards the scutellum ; the latter is also a 

 little more convex than in P. murina. 



Venation almost complete, like that of Thyllis, Er. (" Die Henopier," fig. 5) ; 

 a single submarginal cell ; an elongate, somewhat pentagonal, discal cell ; four pos- 



* HMe is the name of the mythological personage who was drowned in the Hellespont, and 

 gave her name to it. 



