Genus Melanoconion. 509 



and narrower than the second posterior cell, its stem nearly 

 two-thirds the length of the cell, its base nearly level with that 

 of the second posterior cell ; stem of the second posterior nearly 

 as long as the cell ; posterior cross-vein a little longer than the 

 mid, nearly twice its own length away ; halteres with pale stem 

 and fuscous knob. 



Length. — 3*5 mm. 



Habitat.— Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen, New Guinea (Biro, 1900). 



Time of capture. — December. 



Observations. — Described from a single 9 • It can at once be 

 told from all other Melanoconions by the ornamentation of the 

 thorax. Type in the National Museum, Budapest. 



Melanocoxion pallidiceps. Theobald (1905). 

 Ann. Mus. Nat. Hung. III., p. 101 (1905). 



Head silvery -grey, dark behind ; palpi of <J and proboscis 

 brown. Thorax brown, with two dark median lines in front and 

 a dark patch on each side behind, with small bronzy scales ; 

 pleurae testaceous. Abdomen deep brown, unhanded, venter 

 with creamy scales. Legs brown, with bronzy reflections, coxae 

 and under surface of femora grev. 



$ . Head deep brown, with pale narrow-curved scales and 

 flat pale scales at the sides and numerous black upright forked 

 scales, most dense behind ; palpi deep brown, longer than the 

 proboscis, the two distal segments nearly equal, both with black 

 hairs on each side ; proboscis deep brown, swelling apically ; 

 antennae brown, with flaxen-brown plumes. 



Thorax brown to slaty-grey, with two broad dark lines in 

 front and a large brown patch on each side behind over the roots 

 of the wings, with small scattered pale golden to bronzy scales ; 

 scutellum brown, with narrow-curved pale scales ; metanotum 

 deep brown ; pleurae ochreous brown. 



Abdomen brown, with deep brown scales unhanded, hairy, 

 hairs blackish ; genitalia ochreous, with yellowish hairs ; venter 

 with traces of basal pale bands. 



Legs brown, unhanded, with ochreous reflections, coxae 

 ochreous, femora beneath, pale creamy ; fore and mid ungues, 

 unequal and uniserrated, the hind equal and simple. 



Wings with the fork-cells short, the first sub-marginal a little 

 longer and much narrower than the second posterior, its stem as 

 long as the cell, its base slightly nearer the apex of the wing, 



