TWO NEW ETHIOPIAN LONCHAEIDAE. 245 



Type $, type $, and numerous additional specimens of both sexes, in the writer's 

 collection from Erythraea, Ghinda, November-December 1916, collected by 

 Dr. A. Mochi, in whose honour the species is named. A couple of cotypes have been 

 deposited in the British Museum. 



Note 1. The strong resemblance that the present new species shows to 

 L. lasiophthalma makes possible the supposition that it may have similar habits. 

 The latter species is known as producing the curious, plait-shaped galls near the 

 root of the grass Gynodon dactylon, L., which were first described and figured by 

 Dr. Griraud,* but were recorded by Francesco Redi, as was pointed out by 

 Osten Sacken,f as long ago as in 1680. These galls are very common in Central 

 and South Europe. The allied L. parvicornis was observed by PerrisJ as deforming 

 the buds of the grass Agropyrum repens, P.B., into spindle-shaped galls ; but this 

 deformation is much rarer than the preceding one. As the affinity of L. mochii is 

 more close with parvicornis than with lasiophthalma, it may be expected that its 

 gall will be more like that of the former. In fact Prof. De Stefani § has described 

 and figured a gall on a grass, collected likewise near Ghinda in March 1906, which 

 is in all probability the gall of L. mochii, and is more like that of parvicornis than 

 that of lasiophthalma. 



Note 2. It seems that the gall-making habit, which in the genus Lonchaea (s.l.) is 

 developed only in some closely allied species, will justify the formation of a new genus 

 for them ; inasmuch as these species are distinguished by the stout body, hairy 

 eyes, bare arista, greatly developed lunula, broader head, degenerating cephalic 

 bristles, etc. It seems thus that the old genus Dasyops of Rondani (as corrected by 

 Scudder, but Coquillett in 1910 has Dasiopa) must be adopted for these species, 

 against the opinion of the monographers of the family. 



This genus Dasyops seems to have a world-wide distribution, as L. paulistana, 

 Bezzi, from Brazil, certainly belongs to it, and is very like the new species mochii, 

 being distinguished by the much narrower frons of the female and by the want of 

 the middle facial keel. From parvicornis it is distinguished by the bare scutellum ; 

 characteristic for the species are the bare lunula and the more dense ciliation of the 

 front femora, in which the Brazilian species differs from all the other known species 

 of the genus Dasyops, except D. dasyops, Mg. This last species is however very 

 different from all the other true species (lasiophtJialma, parvicornis, paulistana, 

 mochii) on account of its prominent frons and entirely black tarsi ; and moreover 

 it is not known to make galls.|| But as Rondani in 1856 mistook the name dasyops 

 for lasiophthalma, this last species is the type of the genus Dasyops, as accepted 

 by Coquillett. 



* Verh. Zool.-Bot. Ges. Wien, 1861, xi, p. 486, pi. xvii, fig. 6. 



t Bull. Soc. Ent. ItaL, 1883, xv. pp. 187-188. 



t Ann. Soc. Ent. Prance, 1839 (1) viii, pp. 29-37. 



§ Marcellia, 1907, vi, pp. 46-61 (vide p. 56 and fig. 11, gall on Gynodo-n f dactylon, L.), 

 and Boll, del R. Orfco bot. e Giard. colon., Palermo, 1910. ix, p. 3 (sep.). 



|| Even L. hirticeps, Zett., does not belong to the genus Dasyops, on account of its long 

 antennae ; the same may be said of L. crystallophila, Becker. Both species have hairy- 

 eyes, thus showing that the main character of the genus is not that of the eyes. 



