124 MAJOR E, E. AUSTEN. 



consisting of dark brown chitin, situate at bottom of notch or depression in hind 

 margin of abdomen, and about equal in size to corresponding plate in ^, remaining 

 plates very small, light mummy-brown in colour and transversely elliptical or elliptical 

 oval in shape, the penultimate plate and the plate immediately following the basal 

 segment between one-third and one-fourth of the terminal plate in size, the ante- 

 penultimate plate considerably smaller than either of the two plates between which 

 it is situate ; dorsum in 2 sparsely clothed with appressed, dark brown, chestnut- 

 brown or cinnamon-rufous hair, very short except on hind margin of basal segment 

 and on lateral margins of posterior half of abdomen, and, with exceptions stated, 

 much shorter than corresponding hair in (^, each of the four median chitinous plates 

 with a more or less complete row of short hairs, varying in number, on or close to 

 its hind margin ; venter cinnamon-buff, fairly densely clothed with minute, appressed, 

 dark brown, chestnut-brown, or cinnamon-rufous hair. Legs, except tarsi, buf!-yellow 

 or ochraceous-buff, front and middle femora brownish above towards distal extremi- 

 ties, anterior surfaces of front and middle tibiae also more or less brownish ; tarsi 

 cinnamon-brown or chestnut-brown ; bristles and hairs on legs dark brown to 

 cinnamon-rufous, stouter bristles dark brown at base, then paler. 



Jerusalem and Ain Arik (10 miles N.N.-W. of Jerusalem) : type oi<^. and 5 (^ 

 and 2 $ para-types, taken at Jerusalem, 29.vi.1918, on goats and kids ; type of 2, 

 and 1 ^ para-type, caught at Ain Arik, 15.vii.l918, on a kid. In all cases the 

 insects were on the inside of the thighs; at Jerusalem on 29.vi.1918 several 

 specimens were found on one small kid. It may be noted that, in addition to 

 harbouring the parasite just described, the goats examined, which appeared to be 

 perfectly health}^ were also infested with ticks, specimens of which, apparently 

 belonging to two or three species, were numerous on the inside of the animals' ears. 



Among the microscopic preparations forming part of the National Collection 

 of Diptera is a $ Lipoptena, which is evidently conspecific with the specimens 

 enumerated above, and was taken on man at Snevce, Macedonia, in May 1918 

 .[Col. C. M. Wenyon, C.M.G., C.B.E., late A.M.S.). 



In general appearance Lipoptena caprina presents a close resemblance to L. ibicis,. 

 Theob. (Second Report Wellcome Research Labs., Khartoum, 1906, p. 88, figs. 45-47), 

 which was described from specimens found on an ibex at Port Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian 

 Sudan. The new species agrees with L. ibicis with respect to size, etc., of the 

 abdominal plates of chitin and as regards the hairiness of the body, but is distinguish- 

 able by the row of bristles running obliquely across each inner orbit consisting of only 

 two instead of three or four, or sometimes even five bristles, and by the antero- 

 posterior diameter of the vertical triangle (ocelligerous plate) being if anything 

 slightly longer. 



Owing to similaritv of provenance, it might be reasonable to assume the identity 

 of Lipoptena ibicis, Theob., with L. chalcomclaena, Speiser (Zeitschr. f. syst. Hym. u. 

 Dipt., iv, p. 178, 1906), the typical series of which was obtained at Tor (Peninsula of 

 Sinai) on " Capra caucasica " {Capra aegagrus, Gmel. ?). While, however, the number 

 of bristles in the row running obliquely across the inner orbits as given by Speiser 

 for L. chalcomclaena agrees with what is found in L. ibicis, Speiser in describing 

 the abdomen of the male of his species gives no indication of special hairiness ; on 

 the other hand he describes the vertical triangle on the head as " broad and short," 

 whereas in L. ibicis, Theob., the antero-posterior diameter of the corresponding 

 plate is considerably longer than in L. cervi, Linn. On the other hand, in a 

 subsequent paper {op. cit., v, p. 354, 1905), Speiser, when giving additional locahties 

 for his species, mentions that the majority of the specimens afterwards examined by 

 him were collected in Egypt (two on the shores of the Red Sea), and that all of these 

 bore a label with the MS". name of " L. hirta, Low." This would suggest that if Speiser 

 has correctly identified these latter specimens as belonging to his own species, 

 Lipoptena ibicis, Theob., may still be a synonym of L. chalcomclaena, Speiser. 



