﻿SOLOMON ISLANDS TRIPTEROIDES — BELKIN 251 



as proboscis, dark-scaled, very slender, with a few short dark bristles 

 on last two segments. Clypeus brown, bare. Antenna 0.70 as long 

 as proboscis; torus brown, bare; flagellar whorls very dense; last two 

 segments elongate, with dense pubescence, penultimate segment twice 

 as long as terminal. Vertex clothed with broad, appressed, dark 

 scales except for a narrow light line along eye margins and a pair of 

 lateral white patches ; erect occipital scales short, white in the center, 

 dark laterally. 



Thorax : Scutal integument dark brown, thick shaggy vestiture of 

 mixed broad and narrow, curved, appressed, dark bronzy scales, a few 

 narrow white scales on anterior promontory; one pair of anterior 

 dorsocentral bristles, acrostichals absent ; three or four pairs of large 

 prescutellars ; numerous bristles on anterior promontory and supraalar 

 areas; all bristles dark brown. Scutellum dark, completely covered 

 with very broad, appressed, flat, dark-bronzy scales; bristles dark 

 brown. Postnotum brown, darker centrally, bare. Pleural integu- 

 ment brown ; upper part of propleuron, lower anterior part of sterno- 

 pleuron, middle posterior part of mesopleuron, meron and metameron 

 bare ; pronotal lobe and posterior pronotum white-scaled at base, upper 

 half to two-thirds dark-scaled; remainder of pleura completely cov- 

 ered with broad, appressed, translucent white scales. Pleural bristles : 

 anterior pronotals about six strong dark bristles; one strong dark 

 posterior pronotal ; spiraculars two to four dark bristles ; propieurals 

 four to six light hairs ; lower sternopleurals several light hairs ; upper 

 sternopleurals one or two light hairs; prealars usually four dark 

 bristles and a few light hairs ; upper mesepimerals a group of light 

 hairs. Halteres light on base and lower part of stem, upper part of 

 stem and knob dark-scaled. 



Wings: Scales all dark. Outstanding scales on all veins beyond 

 1 narrow. Bases of fork cells approximately equidistant from wing 

 base. Fringe mostly dark. Squama fringed. 



Legs : All dark-bronzy except for white-scaled coxae and trochanters 

 and light-scaled ventral surfaces of femora, tibiae, and tarsi. Enlarged 

 claw of front tarsus with a tooth near the middle, that of middle tarsus 

 simple. Apex of hind tibia and base of first hind tarsal segment with 

 specialized hairs and scales. Hind tibia approximately 0.85 of middle 

 tibia. 



Abdomen : Dark iridescent bronzy dorsally ; ventral surface a dingy 

 yellowish white ; lateral areas of tergites with mixed pure white and 

 dark scales. First tergite with numerous light hairs; eighth segment 

 with numerous dark bristles; sternites moderately hairy, more so on 

 apical segments. 



Genitalia (figs. 33, g; 34, d) : Sidepiece conical, densely covered 

 with scales laterally and ventrally, dorsal surface with bristles only, 



