Australian and Tasmanian Malacodermidac. 129 



other males all these appendages will not be visible, or 

 will appear to be different, as the insects (there are one 

 male and two females under examination) are subject to 

 great shrinkage. I think it probable that the species will 

 not permanently remain in Selenurus * ; but the specimens 

 will not stand the manipulation necessary for a critical 

 generic examination. One specimen was taken from moss, 

 the others from Acacia sp. in full bloom ; these at the 

 moment of capture looked much like minute Cecidomyid 

 flies. The elytra are of so fragile a nature that they appear 

 to twist almost as readily as the wings. 



Genus Heteromastix, Boh., Res. Eugen., p. 86. 



This genus was proposed by Bohemann for a small 

 insect having the 10th and 11th joints of the antennae 

 curiously distorted ; subsequently Blackburn referred two 

 species having simple antennae to it and stated that he 

 thought Telephorus picsio (ptisillus, Boh.) was congeneric. 

 This is my opinion also, and I think that Telephoo'us 

 victoriensis, gaUatus, fusicornis and pauxilhts as well, 

 should he referred to the genus. 



The genus although close to Telephorus differs in the 

 antennae abdomen and simple mandibles. All the species 

 are small, with the prothorax strongly transverse (usually 

 fully twice as wide as long). It is readily divisible into 

 sections dependent on the antennae of the male. 



1. Eleventh joint (and usually the tenth) distorted in 

 the male. 



2. Ninth joint distorted in the male. 



3. Third to fifth joints distorted in the male. 



4. Antennae simple in both sexes. 



There is nothing, however, in the females to indicate to 

 which of these sections they belong. The first section is 

 the typical one, but is perhaps not so numerously repre- 

 sented as the fourth. 



The mandibles are usually so folded as to be indistinct, 

 and it is difficult to manipulate specimens to see them at 

 all clearl}' ; but in specimens of several species (Jlavipennis, 

 latus, and simplex) before me they are exposed, and are 



* In the male of Selenurus aydneyanus there are also some re- 

 markable subapical appendages in the abdomen ; as this contracts so 

 greatly in dying, it is difficult to make out their true nature, but there 

 are at least two sharp curved long processes. 



TEANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1909. — PART I. (MAY) K 



