DESCRIPTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN ^SCHNIISI^. 59 



nearly straight green band running across from eye to eye in front of 

 antennse, and intei-ruj)ted medially by a thick cross-bar which may be taken 

 as the stem of a vevj indistinct and much swollen " T-mark/" The colour- 

 scheme of thorax and abdomen varies somewhat, and a very fine and long 

 series taken by me at Guy Fawkes, N.S.W., is distinct enough to merit a 

 varietal name. I therefore propose for it the name var. geminata defined by 

 the following characters : — 



Dorsal thoracic rays reduced to fine slightly curved green lines ; lateral 

 bands broad, straight, yellow, without any sign of a third intervening band. 

 Sagittate dorsal spots of abdomen much reduced, each being split into two 

 geminate subtriangular halves separated by the black line of the dorsal ridge. 

 Types: d' ? , Coll. TiUyard. 



The end-segments of the female are so remarkable as to deserve special 

 study. There is a reduction in the size of the ovipositor to a length of 

 only 2 mui., so that it projects out strongly nnder segment 9, but does not 

 reach beyond it. The styli are short and black, projecting transversely, 

 apparently only one-jointed, ending in a stiff' bnnch of black hairs. 

 Segment 10 is somewhat lengthened, and shows underneath a rudiment of 

 what was probably once a dentigerous plate. The very sharp spine deve- 

 loped at the dorso-apical end of 10 is well shown in Plate 9. fig. 13, and is 

 most probably an organ used in oviposition in place of the dentigerons plate. 

 [For end-segments of $ , see Plate 9. figs. lo-14.] 



In a steep gully at Gruy Fawkes, cut out of basalt, down which rushed a 

 mountain-torrent, I found, about the 4000-feet level, a small level tract 

 where two streams met, and where a small bog was formed overgrown with 

 tea-tree. At the end of December, 1911, on hot sunny days, N. sagittata, 

 var. geminata, was abroad over this small bog in fair numbers. It flies 

 gracefully at a good speed over the tops of the bushes and round the trees, 

 only occasionally dropping to seize an insect. They were most difficult to 

 catch until I conceived the idea of hiding behind a clump of tea-tree over 

 which they careered in procession. By this means I netted about two dozen, 

 mainly males, in the course of several visits, the rate of capture being about 

 one every twenty minutes. Of the larvae I found three only. I was 

 fortunate enough, one day, to observe a pair flying high, in cop., and shortly 

 afterwards the female separated from the male and dived down to a part of 

 the bog just in front of me. Creeping cautiously forward, I observed her 

 fluttering low along the reedy edges of the boggy puddles. She half settled 

 on a clump of reeds and dipped the tip of her abdomen into the water as 

 if to oviposit. At that moment, when I hojied to observe her method of 

 oviposition fully, she became alarmed and flew up straight towards me. 

 Fortunatel)^ I netted her, and she almost immediately exuded a small cluster 

 of large elongate-oval pale yellowish efjgs. A few more single eggs followed, 

 totalling in all over twenty — a far larger number than I have ever obtained 



