BY ARTHUR WHITE. 31 



Fig. 16. Head of Ectinorrhynehus variabilis. 



Male. Head very short and excavated behind ; front 

 black, projecting forwards ; antennae set very low, so that 

 the face is chiefly occupied by the proboscis and palpi, 

 which are black and yellow respectively. Antenna? with 

 the first joint long, dull red, covered with long black hairs ; 

 second very short, black with black bristles; third black, 

 almost bare, a little shorter than the first, expanded in 

 the middle, tapering towards the apex, and terminated 

 by a very small, nearly round, style. Eyes separated, but 

 not very widely. Thorax black, with four light yellow- 

 brown tomentose stripes, the two middle ones being the 

 longest and the most distinct ; the space between the 

 two middle stripes is always deep black, but that between 

 the middle and the outer stripes may be partly covered 

 with brownish tomentum ; the posterior portion of the 

 thorax is also covered with a patch of very light yellow- 

 brown tomentum ; sides of thorax black ; scutellum brown- 

 ish-black, with posterior margin brown, and bearing two 

 long black marginal bristles. Abdomen black, covered, 

 particularly on the central segments, with a silvery tomen- 

 tum ; genitalia reddish-yellow. Legs : femora bright yel- 

 low-brown, anterior and middle tibia? yellow, posterior 

 tibia? bright yellow-brown, all bearing black bristles; tarsi 

 black, the first joint of the middle pair indistinctly, and 

 of the posterior pair distinctly, whitish at base. Wings 

 generally tinged with brown, and with an ii'regular brown 

 band across the middle of the wing, and a broader one 

 extending almost to the wing-tip ; fourth posterior eel? 

 wide open. 



Female differs very much in appearance from the male ; 

 the eyes are much more widely separated, and the abdo- 

 men is black with the apex reddish-yellow, and without 

 anv trace of silvery tomentum. 



This species can be distinguished at once from E. phyci- 

 formis (next to be described) by the scutellum and abdo- 

 men being black instead of orange-red, and by the shorter 

 antenna?. 



E. variabilis occurs commonly in the Tasmanian bush. 

 The male is more frequently seen than the female, but 



