Hale^Aquatic Hemiptera 403 



Hal). South Australia: Adelaide, Murray Bridge, Port Willunga, and 

 Northern Flinders Ranges, 2,000 ft. (H. M. Hale), Lucindale (B. A. Feuer- 

 heprdt), Mount Lofty Ranges (J. Formby, J. G. 0. Tepper, and H. M. Hale), 

 River Light (Molineaux), Myponga Swamps (A. H. Elston and H. M. Hale), 

 Kangaroo Is. (B. B. Beck); Northern Territory: Alexandria (type locality); 

 Queensland: Gladstone (A. M. Lea), Dalby (Mrs. F. H. Hobler), Karroongooloo 

 Station (H. S. Allnutt) ; New South Wales: Sydney (W. B. Gurney), Mittagong 

 and Tamworth (A. M. Lea), Broken Hill (F. W. Shepherd); Victoria: Mel- 

 bourne (Searle), Coromby (J. G. 0. Tepper); Tasmania (A. Simson). 



The slender form, large eyes and narrow notocephalon are the salient 

 features of this species. The synthlipsis of the male varies in width, but is 

 always exceedingly narrow ; the eyes are never actually contiguous basallj'", 

 although in one instance they are separated by no more than the diameter of an 

 eye facet : the vertex also varies in both sexes. The intermediate tibiae of the 

 several specimens measured by me are relatively shorter than stated by Kirkaldy. 

 A point worthy of note is the variability of size as compared with other 

 Australian members of the genus with similar distribution; large and small 

 specimens have been taken in company in the same localities. During trips to 

 the northern districts of South Australia in 1920 and 1921 a few examples flew 

 to camp lights at night, and others were collected in the clear brackish creeks. 



Li the spring of 1922 many thousands of backsAvimmers were congregated 

 near the edges of a small dam in the Mount Lofty Ranges ; two species were pre- 

 sent in all stages, from eg^ to adult, most of the images having recently com- 

 l^leted their metamorphoses. A census shoAved that A. dor is occurred along one 

 side of the pool, while A. liiipcriori was confined to the opposite margin.. 



ANISOPS HYPERION Kirkaldy. 



Anisops hyperion Kirk., Wien. ent. Zeit., xvii, 1898, p. 141 & xxiii, 1904, p. 113 



(part?). 



$ Head, including eyes, almost as wide as the pronotum ; notocephalon 

 ochraceous or testaceous, sometimes suffused at base with orange ; with a median 

 longitudinal groove, on each side of which is a sAvelling, which does not reach to 

 base of head ; vertex 1-4 to 1-9 times the synthlipsis, which i's 3 to 4-5 times in the 

 width of an eye; tumidities of notocephalon converging on clypeus to form a 

 median carina, on each side of which, and bordering the eye, is a line of punc-- 

 tnres. Pronotum pale anteriorly, usually blackish on posterior half, sometimes 

 wholly lilack or wholly white; length a little less than four-fifths the humeral 

 width ; with shallow, scattered punctures and an indistinct, coarse median carina, 

 whii-ji does not extend to the posterior margin; hinder edge concavely incised. 



