1908.] NEW SPECIES OP FLEAS. 621 



The short bristles on the sternites of the third to sixth segments 

 are less numerous than in the allied species just mentioned. 



Legs. — As in colossus. 



Modified segments. — $ . The seventhsternite(Pl.XXIX.fig, 10) 

 is bisinuate, closely resembling that segment of P. colossus, but 

 differing in the lower lobe and the lower sinus being much wider, 

 in the upper sinus being smaller, and in the bristles being 

 diflferently arranged. 



Length : 5 mm. 



We have 3 $ from Mt. Albert Edward, British New Guinea, 

 off Mus mordax ; received from Mr. E. 0. Chubb. 



5. Pygiopsylla mordax, sp. n. (Plate XXVIII. fig. 6 ; Plate 

 XXIX. fig. 9.) 



Head. — The frons is strongly curved, as is the case in P. ahalce 

 Rothsch. (1904), the bristles being thick. The rostrum is shorter 

 than in all the other species, reaching onl}^ a little beyond the 

 middle of the fore coxa. 



Thorax. — The pronotum is short. It bears tw^o rows of bristles, 

 the anterior row being irregular and represented by but a few 

 dorsal hairs. The comb consists of 1 6 to 18 spines, which are 

 longer than the pronotum. The meso- and metanotum each 

 bears four rows of bristles, the first row not reaching so far 

 downward as the others. The mesothoracic pleura have about 

 twelve bristles, of which four or five anterior ones are short. 



Abdomen. — The first tergite has four rows of bristles, the 

 second to seventh tergites three rows. The basal sternite bears 

 in the S about 6 minute hairs on the side arranged in two oblique 

 rows. The sternites of the third to sixth segments of the S 

 have on each side a curved row of four subapical bristles and 

 proximately to this row six or eight smaller bristles. In the $ 

 the basal sternite has two irregular oblique rows of bi-istles on the 

 side, each row containing about ten bristles, the bristles being- 

 more numerous also on the other sternites than in the S ■ 



Legs. — The mid and hind femora bear three ventral subapical 

 bristles, the first being smaller than the others. The mid and 

 hind tibi8e have numerous bristles practically all over the outei- 

 surface, the bristles being more numerous in the § than in the 

 S . The first mid-tarsal segment is much longer than the second, 

 but is shorter than in P. ahalce. The fifth hind-tarsal segment 

 is as long as the third. 



Modified segments. — c? . The apex of the large eighth 

 abdominal sternite is irregularly rounded. There are four pairs 

 of long bristles below the upper edge of this sclerite, a single long- 

 bristle below the most distal pair, and further down at the ventral 

 margin two or three more long bristles. Between these long- 

 ventral bristles and the base of the segment there ai-e about 1 2 

 shorter bristles, there being also three or four additional bristles on 

 the lateral surface. The clasper (PI. XXYIII. fig. 6, CI.) is distally 



