160 AUSTRALIAN BLEPHAROCERIDAE, 



gite; the longer inferior appendages, forming the forceps, are the distal seg- 

 ments of the gonapophyses of the ninth sternite, the basal segments forming 

 the "side-pieces" or bases of the forceps, while the true ninth sternite is reduced 

 to a narrow ring. A penis and a pair of penunci are also present, though 

 mostly hidden between the upper processes and the forceps. In the female, the 

 abdomen ends in a pair of short appendages, while the ninth sternite bears a 

 pair of small gonapophyses, unsegmented. 



A constant feature in the wings of this family is the general shape of the 

 wing, which is petiolate at the base, the narrow portion being called the petiole 

 or pedicel, and then widens out suddenly by enlargement of the anal margin, so 

 that a deep re-entrant angle is formed between the pedicel and the rest of the 

 wing; this is called the axillary lobe. The anal margin then becomes strongly 

 bent into a projecting angle, generally a right-angle or slightly obtuse, more, 

 rarely somewhat acute, and called the anal angle. Closely allied species may 

 have considerable differences in the form of this angle as reliable specific 

 characters. 



The venation of most Blepharoceridae is so reduced that the naming of the 

 veins has until recently been open to considerable doubt. But the discovery, in 

 Southern Chile and Patagonia, of the archaic genus Edu-ardsina, recently described 

 by Alexander, has definitely solved this problem; for, in this genus, the venation 

 is complete enough to enable all the main veins to be named with certainty, as 

 may be seen from Text-fig. 1, a. 



Though abundant enough in New Zealand, from which region four species 

 have already been described and others still await description, yet the record of 

 the occurrence of Blepharoceridae in Australia rested until recently on a single 

 specimen taken by Mr. F. P. Dodd at Kuranda, N. Queensland, and described 

 by Professor Bezzi as Apistomyia collini in Bull. Soc. Entom. Ital., xliv. (1912), 

 1913, pp. 67-69. Having collected these interesting insects abundantly in many 

 parts of New Zealand, and being familiar with their peculiar life-histories, it 

 occurred to me that their apparent absence in such places as the Blue Mountains 

 of N.S.W. might be explained most satisfactorily by the fact that they had been 

 consistently overlooked by collectors, rather than that they were actually absent 

 from such favourable localities. Therefore, on a recent visit to Sydney, I deter- 

 mined to make special search for them. This search was rewarded by my finding, 

 on the very first day of my visit to Wentworth Falls, numerous larvae and pupae 

 of a Blepharocerid on and around the Weeping Rock. On the following day, 

 which was sunny, imagines of both sexes of this new species were taken in the 

 same locality. A week or two later, while on a visit to Mount Kosciusko, two 

 fine new species were secured, together with larvae and pupae. Thus the total 

 number of species for Australia has already been brought up to four as the 

 result of only a few days collecting in suitable localities. It would seem reason- 

 able to suppose that many more species of these interesting flies remain to be 

 discovered throughout Tasmania, where waterfalls are plentiful, and also in the 

 mountainous parts of the Australian mainland. 



The present paper will deal only with the imagines of the newly discovered 

 species. Later on, I hope to give, in a second paper, full descriptions of the 

 larvae and pupae, together with some account of their habits, and a discussion 

 of the value of the larval characters as guides to generic affinities. 



The three species here described belong to three different genera, viz., Ed- 

 wardsina Alex., Neoeurupira Lamb, and Apistomyia Bigot. The first of these has 

 only been previously recorded from Southern Chile and Patagonia, so that the 

 existence of such an archaic type on Mount Kosciusko is striking additional 

 evidence on the question of ancient land-connections between Southern land- 



