502 



NEW GUINEA. 



[chap, xxjciv. 



very scarce, and were mostly the same aa tliose wliich I 

 Lad obtained at Aru. 



Among the insects of other orders, the most curions and 

 novel were a group of homed flies, of tyIucIi I obtained 

 four distinct species, aettUng on fallen trees and decaying 

 trimks. These remarkable insects, which have been de- 

 scribed by W. Saundei"s as a new genus, under the 

 name of Elaphoniia or deer-flies, are about half an inch 

 long, slender-bodied, and with very long legs, wliich they 

 draw together so as to elevate their bodies high above the 

 surface they are standing upon. The front pair of legs 

 are much shorter, and tbese are often stretched directly 

 forwards, so as to resemble antenufe. The horns spring 

 from beneath the eye, and seem to be a prolongation of 

 the lower part of the orbit. In the largest and most 

 singular species, named Elaphomia cendcornis or the atfijr- 



E. bre vicomts, E. dloiconiia. 



homed deer-fly, these boms are nearly as long as the 

 body, having two branches, with two small snags near tlieir 

 bifurcation, so as to resemble the horns of a stag. They 

 are black, with the tips pale, while the body and legs are 

 yellowish brown, and the eyes (when alive) violet and green. 

 The next species fElaphomia wallacei) is of a dark brown 

 colour, banded and spotted with yellow, The horns are 

 about one-third the length of the insect, broad, fiat, anil 

 of an elongated triangiilar form, They are of a beautiful 



