70 Records of the Indian Museum. [VoL VEL, 
fig. 1), but they are ill-defined and colourless and are demarked 
chiefly by ridges of the wing membrane. 
Halteres narrow, each terminating in a single hooked bristle 
(fig. 6). 
Legs stout, the femora very broad. Anterior limb (fig. 4) 
evidently fossorial: the tibia and tarsus short and stout, the 
strong claw firmly fused to the tarsus without any definite line of 
demarcation: tibia, tarsus and claw of approximately equal 
length. In the other limbs (fig. 5), the tibia and tarsus are 
normal and the claw articulated to the latter: tibia more than 
twice length of tarsus: a minute ungual digitule on claw of mid 
and hind legs, none on claw of front leg. 
Abdomen broad, with a strong fold on each side: 7th and 8th 
abdominal segments dorsally prominent, each with a dorsal tuft 
of long glassy filaments (equal in length to the whole body of the 
insect) which are directed upwards and backwards, arising from 
transverse bands of crowded polygonal cells (fig. 7): terminal 
segment shovel-shaped, the intromittent organ slender, forming a 
backward loop within the body before passing through the genital 
sheath (fig. 3). 
Length 2°75 to 325mm. Expanse of wings approximately 
8 mm. 
Locality: Jahada, Nepal, India, 14-iit-r908. Coll. Indian 
Museum. 
When boiled in potash, the insect gave out a bright crimson 
stain. 
Adult 2. A fragmentary example of an adult female was 
extracted from one of the cysts from Bangalore {sample 2), des- 
cribed below. Judging from the dried remnants, the insect was 
probably yellow in life. Owing to the decayed and imperfect 
condition of the specimen, few details of the body can be made 
out; but there are many large and stout hairs (almost spines), 
both on the dorsum and venter, and numerous bluntly pointed 
conical spines (fig. 23) on the marginal area. Fortunately one of 
the anterior limbs remains intact. This leg (fig. 19) is of the 
typical fossorial form: the femur very broad and robust, with a 
few longish stout hairs on its inner area: the tibia small and 
triangular, with two iong stout hairs on its inner margin: the 
tarsus and claw closely fused together, curved, tapering to a sharp 
point, with two stout lateral hairs near the base, and three or 
four stout curved hairs on the inner margin corresponding to the 
ungual digitules. 
In the development and position of the hairs on this limb, 
M. indicus approaches M. formicarum (fig. 20), rather than the 
two African species (figs. 2I and 22): but differs in the greater 
number and size of the ungual hairs. It will be observed that 
it is very much smaller than the corresponding limb of the other 
species with which I have been able to compare it (vtde figs. 19 
to 22, all enlarged by 50 diameters). But the whole insect is 
proportionately small. The imperfect condition of my example 
