BY ARTHUR WHITE. 5 



abdomen black, the hindmargins of segments fringed with 

 short yellow or white pubescence ; legs deep brown ; wings 

 hyaline, the costal margin very narrowly brown. 



Length. Female, 14.5 mm.; male, 15.5 mm. 



Hab. Bagdad, Bellerive. 



Female. Face yellowish-grey ; beard white. Palpi long, 

 brown. Antennae with the first two joints brown, bear- 

 ing short black hairs, the third black, and almost sym- 

 metrical. Eyes with short and sparse pubescence. Frontal 

 stripe very slightly broader below than above, the centre 

 black and shining, the sides and upper fourth covered 

 with yellow-brown torn en turn, the whole bearing a little 

 short black pubescence ; frontal triangle black, covered 

 with yellow-brown tomentum ; vertex excavated and almost 

 bare. Thorax black, with black pubescence, and a few 

 white hairs fringing posterior margins. Abdomen black, 

 the hindmargins of segments fringed with short yellow 

 or white pubescence. Legs with femora, tibiae, and tarsi 

 deep brown or brownish-black ; posterior knees yellow, 

 with a black streak below ; femora bearing rather short 

 black hairs, tibiae with unusually short black hairs. Wings 

 hyaline, with the costal margin very narrowly brown; the 

 cubital fork without a recurrent veinlet. 



Male resembles the female, but is of mere slender build; 

 the eyes are joined and densely hairy, the thorax bears* 

 long upright black hairs and depressed yellow hairs, the 

 pubescence fringing the abdominal segments is more abun- 

 dant, and extends along the outer margins, and the hairs 

 clothing the legs are longer. 



This is a very distinct species ; it may be at once 

 recognized by the absence of a recurrent veinlet to the 

 cubital fork, by its large size, its uniform black coloura- 

 tion, and by the abdominal segments being merely fringed 

 with yellowish pubescence, instead of, as in the other 

 Tasmanian species, possessing distinct pale hindmargins. 

 A nearly-allied "Victorian species, T. victoriensis, Ricardo, 

 is distinguished by having the veins of the wings broadly 

 shaded with brown. 



T. microdonta is generally scarce, but on February 13, 

 1913, in the bush at Bagdad, I saw several specimens of 

 the male flying rapidly to and fro in the bright sunshine, 

 and on the same day I came across another male in the 

 clutches of a specimen of Stenopogon elongatus (Asilidai). 

 Of the female I have found two specimens, one in the 

 bush near Bagdad, the other crawling on the sands at 

 Bellerive. I have only met with it during February. 

 T. microdonta appears to be confined to Tasmania. 



