14 NOTES ON SOME AUSTRALIAN SYBPHIDAE (DIPTEEa), 



contiguous for a little distance, and are bare with slightly larger facets on the 

 summit than elsewhere. The vertex is a little longer than the maximum width 

 and almost entirely occupied by a black ocellar tubercle on and behind which 

 there is a little yellow hair which extends behind the eyes. The antennae are 

 inserted above the middle of the head, are elongate and porrect; the basal joint is 

 long; the second joint is twice the length of the first; the third joint is a little 

 shorter but broader than the second and bears an arista situated near the base; 

 the basal joints arj brown and have a few bristly hairs; and the third joint is 

 black. The epistoma is somewhat convex, without a central knob but protrudes 

 above the oral margin; the cheeks are very small. The face and antennal 

 triangle are covered with a dense yellow tomentum and some thin yellow hairs. 

 The protuberance above the oral margin and the area behind the oral cone to 

 the rear of the head are black and shining. The proboscis is black. 



The thorax is black, but shines slightly with metallic colours on the dorsum ; 

 it is covered with a short pubescence which is mostly yellow in colour and near 

 the anterior border there is some white tomentum; ventrally the pubescence is 

 whitish. The thorax is much longer than wide, and the wings are set at about 

 two-thirds its length. The seutelluni is similar in colour to the thorax but con- 

 tains longer yellowish pubescence. 



The abdomen is black, very long, tapering to the apex of the second segment, 

 on which is situated a pair of large yellow spots; the third and fourth segments 

 widen out and the abdomen terminates in a rounded fifth segment ; the apex oi 

 the fourth segment is more or less yellow. The venter is black with the second 

 s-egment yellow. The abdomen is covered with an unevenly distributed vestiturc 

 which is mostly yellow. 



The legs have their coxae and trochanters black, the remainder of the anterior 

 and intermediate legs is reddish, covered with a short white pubescence; the 

 posterior femora are reddish with their apices black, they are conspicuously 

 swollen and contain a few minute ventral spines placed in a row towards the 

 anterior side; the posterior tibiae are considerably curved, yellow at the extreme 

 base then black with the central third red, but they vary somewhat in these colours; 

 the posterior tarsi are black; the hair on the posterior legs is whitish. 



The wings are hyaline with brownish stigma and veins. The halteres are 

 yellow. 



Female. The female has the same general characters as the male, but differs 

 by the eyes being widely separated and the front between them shines black and 

 blue; also the abdomen has the usual elongate shape of a Syrphid and is more or 

 less parallel sided and further it is entirely black, the yellow markings on the 

 second segment of the abdomen being discernible by the less intensely black colour. 



Length. — 10 mm. 



Hob.— Tasmania; the holotype from Geeveston, 17th Jan., 1916, the allotype 

 from Hobart, 10th March, 1917, four male and three female paratypes from 

 Dunalley, Hobart, and Geeveston, during the months of April, July, September, 

 October, and December. A further small series is in the collection of Mr. C E 

 Cole. 



New South Wales; one female paratype numbered "41" is in Dr. Ferguson's 

 collection, and is without further data. 



Note.— This is a very distinctive species that does not seem to have been 

 previously described. The characters of the antennae and the venation are 

 similar to those of the genus Chrysotoxum, but the species differs in some other 

 characters, especially that of the abdomen, on which account it may be necessarv 

 to remove this species into another genus. 



