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XXVII. On Notiothauma Reecli, a remarkable neio 

 genus and species of Neuroptera y*/-om Chili, 

 pertuininq to the family Pauorpidas. By 

 R. M'Lachlan, F.R.S., &c. 



[Read October 3rd, 1877.] 



SoiME time ago I received from Mr. Edwyn C. Reed, of 

 the Museo Nacional of Santiago de Chile, a box oi Neurop- 

 tera ffom that quarter. The fauna of Chili has always 

 been of special interest to me, in consequence of the many 

 remarkable forms exhibited by it, and the tendency shown 

 to produce European genera that do not exist in the vast 

 regions of tropical America, so that the extreme southern 

 part of the continent forms, as it were, an island, with a 

 large admixture of Pal^earctic faunistic elements. The 

 other insects are not less interesting, and Mr. Reed's 

 collection added several curious forms, already known, to 

 my hitherto somewhat scanty materials from that country. 

 But unfortunately it had suffered much fi-om the ravages 

 of Anthreni, and some of the best things had been greatly 

 mutilated by them. Among these was an insect that for 

 a long time puzzled me exceedingly, and it is only recently 

 that I became aware of its true position, which I think is 

 certainly in the family Panorpida, its nearest ally being 

 the extraordinary and rare Merope tuber (Newman) of 

 North America. The single individual had suffered 

 perhaps worse than any other, the legs being absent, and 

 the head and prothorax nearly entirely devoured, but leav- 

 ing an antenna, a portion of a large eye, and a fragment 

 of the front with the maxillary palpi attached thereto, 

 hanging by a thread of debris. I have a great aversion to 

 descriptions draAvn up from mutilated examples; but in 

 the present instance identity can clearly be established 

 fi-om the singular wings, &c. I propose to call the genus 

 Notiothauma, and to acknowledge ]\Ir. Reed's labours in 

 Chilian entomology by associating his name with the 

 species. 



Notiothauma, gen. nov. 



[Head and pronotum nearly entirely destroyed.] An- 

 tenna3 long and slender, being composed of about 32 



TRANS. ENT. SOC'. 1877. — rAKT IV. (dEC.) 



