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A BLOOD-SUCKING SPECIES OF PERICOMA IN QUEENSLAND (DIPT). 



By Frank H. Taylor, F.E.S., 

 The Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine. 



(Plate VII.) 



Hitherto no flies of the family Psychodidae have been recorded from Australia. 

 However, during the year 1913 three specimens of a single species were taken in 

 Townsville, one of which was subsequently submitted to Mr. E. E. Austen, who 

 informed the author that it belonged to the genus Pericoma and was probably a 

 new species. As I have been unable to determine it as one of Brunetti's Oriental 

 species, I now describe it as new. 



I wish to acknowledge with gratitude Mr. Austen's generous assistance to me 

 on this and many other occasions. 



Pericoma townsvillensis, sp. n. 



Head densely clothed with brown hairs with white apices ; antennae pale, with 

 white verticillate hairs, the base and second segment clothed with pale scales ; 

 palpi densely clothed with black scales. Thorax clothed with light brown hairs with 

 white tips. Abdomen with very dense brown hairs with snow-white tips ; venter 

 clothed with dark brown hairs. Legs pale, covered with dark scales ; the apex of 

 the first tarsals white, all remaining tarsi white ; the femora, tibiae and first tarsals 

 with dark hairs and bristles, which are particularly prominent on the first tarsals 

 and hind tibiae. Wings densely clothed w^ith dusky hairs ; fringe dusky and very 

 prominent ; veins pale, their apices and the forks of the second and fourth veins 

 with very distinct black, scaly haii-spots. 



Length, Vl mm. 



Queensland : Townsville {Dr. H. Priestley and F. H. Taylor). 



Described from two specimens (a third in the British Museum), which were 

 captured indoors during May. This species is a very severe biter, the irritation 

 remaining for some hours. In one case the swelling raised by the bite was surrounded 

 by a marked reddish areola, both of which persisted for three weeks. 



Type and one other specimen in the collection of the Institute. 



