54 



no doubt, finds plenty of food in the opossum's nest, but it 

 is very unlikely that a member of this family draws blood 

 from a warm-blooded animal. It is much more probable 

 that it sucks out the Tineid and other soft-skinned larvae so 

 common in its haunt, unless it simply feeds on decaying 

 vegetable matters in the nest. From the fact that the soft 

 swollen abdomen of the larvae is red in colour (like that of 

 so many other Myodochid larvae) and that the middle of the 

 venter is often reddish in the imagines, it was hastily inferred 

 that they were "gorged with blood." 



Clerada nidicola, n. sp. 



Black, above glabrous, both above and beneath very 

 finely and thickly punctured ; basal border of pronotum and 

 posterior angles of proplurae tawny; the commissure, suture, 

 and scutellar margin of the clavus also tawny, but very nar- 

 rowly so; membrane greyish-fuscous; rostrum, orificia, middle 

 of venter, and legs yellowish-ferruginous; trochanters black at 

 tip ; apex of femora and the whole tibiae somewhat inf uscated ; 

 antennae black or fuscous, last joint, except a narrow sub- 

 basal ring, very pale testaceous. Head as long as pronotum 

 and as broad as it is long, the postocular part rounded on 

 the sides, ocelli almost touching the eyes, vertex more than 

 twice broader than an eye ; the eyes seen from above much 

 longer than broad ; rostrum reaching posterior margin of 

 second ventral segment; first joint of antennae scarcely passing 

 apex of head, second joint three times longer than first, third 

 a little longer than first, fourth half as long again as the 

 third joint or somewhat longer. Pronotum at apex distinctly 

 broader than the head and a little broader than its own 

 median length, at base about one-half broader than at apex, 

 transversely impressed before the middle, the impression more 

 pronounced at the sides, lateral margins a little reflected, 

 scarcely or very slightly sinuated. Scutellum in the basal 

 half with a transverse impression, in the apical half with a 

 longitudinal median keel. Hemelytra in the male very slightly 

 passing apex of abdomen, in the female reaching base of dorsal 

 genital segment, the claval commissure as long as the scu- 

 tellum. Abdomen beneath with scattered hairs along the 

 apical margin of the segments ; male genital segment viewed 

 from behind deeply arcuately sinuate, the apical margin 

 somewhat angularly prominent in the middle, the claspers 

 crossed, pale-ferruginous. First joint of hind tarsi distinctly 

 longer than the two other joints together. Length : d , 7 

 mm. ; 9 > 8 mm. 



South Australia (near Adelaide), in nest of Trichosurus 

 vulpecula, Kerr. 



