eee 
CE —  ——— — ——————————————————— 
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REVISIONARY CLASSIFICATION OF RUTILIINI 49 
immediately before scutellum. Postalar callus with 3 strong setae. Suprasquamal ridge 
thickly haired. Scutellum strongly flattened, rather thin; with 7-8 pairs of marginal setae 
(these very strong, stiff and straight); with a row of small irregular preapical setae, these very 
feebly developed in §. Haired area of lower part of pteropleuron not extending in front of 
level of posterior sternopleural seta. One sternopleural seta (o + 1). Prosternum and pro- 
sternal membrane bare. Hind tibia without definite anterodorsal fringe and without ad setae, 
pd seta absent in gf but one present in ? (latter may have very weak second fd setula). Last 
abdominal tergite broad and with large depression. T3 without median or lateral marginal 
setae. 15 with transverse median regular row of long strong erect setae. Surstyli of f genitalia 
simple elongate lobes (Text-fig. 59). [Bright green to violaceous blue species with metallic para- 
frontals and genae and blackish hind margins to abdominal tergites]. 
DISTRIBUTION. Known only from eastern Australia from Victoria to Queensland. 
Discussion. Malloch erected Neorutilia as a subgenus of Rutilia for the single 
aberrant species simplex Malloch. This is a curious and isolated species showing an 
unusual combination of characters which prevent it from being assigned satisfac- 
torily to any other subgenus, and I therefore agree with Malloch in placing simplex 
separately from other Rutilia and am recognizing Neorutilia as a valid subgenus; 
no other species fitting into the concept have been described. 
The metallic blue or green parafrontals, epistome and genal dilations make 
simplex a unique species amongst the whole Rutilia fauna of Australia, and it is 
therefore very easily identified, but very similar forms superficially—having the 
same type of largely metallic head, similar coppery green to blue-violet body colour, 
and even the same knob-like development of the hind part of the notopleuron—are 
to be found in the luzona-group of Chrysorutilia from the Philippines. This super- 
ficial resemblance is so strong that I at first inclined to believe that simplex and the 
Philippine species referred to must have strong affinity and perhaps be consubgeneric, 
but detailed examination of the whole constellation of body characters shows con- 
vincingly that the resemblances are convergent. The /uwzona-group has the features 
of true Chrysorutilia such as the presence of strong hairing on the prosternal mem- 
brane and forward edge of the prosternum itself, loss or non-development of the 
inner setae of the humeral callus, no depression in the last abdominal tergite, 
extended area of hairing forwards on the lower pteropleuron, no supernumerary 
prescutellar setae, four or more postalar setae, convex scutellum, and long regular 
hind tibial fringe: in simplex, however, these characters of Chrysorutilia are not 
found, and Neorutilia differs from Chrysorutilia by having bare parafacials, bare 
prosternal membrane and prosternum, inner humeral setae developed, strong 
supernumerary prescutellars developed, only three postalar setae, extremely flattened 
scutellum, pteropleural hairing not extending forwards of the sternopleural seta, 
no hind tibial fringe (or extremely short and inconspicuous), and a well developed 
depression in T5. 
In several of the characters just cited Neorutilia resembles the subgenus Dono- 
vanius—for example both subgenera have setae on the inner part of the humeral 
callus, lack pteropleural hair anterior to the sternopleural seta, have a very broad 
abdominal T5 with large median depression, and have the scutellum distinctly 
flattened—but it is doubtful whether there is any close relationship between the two. 
Neorutilia differs from Donovanius in having only three postalar setae, largely 
