1926 ] 
New or Little Known Australasian Cicadas 
71 
tonous, disjointed series of staccato notes of uniform pitch, at a 
rate of 1 per second. The sun suddenly came out and song (A) 
became more spirited, resolving itself into song (B), slightly 
rasping, varied in volume and rhythm, with a rise and fall in 
pitch of a major third, or sometimes a major fifth as in phrase 
(C) which was an occasional variant of the preceding phrase. 
This had a vocal quality which may be expressed as “oo-er-ih.” 
Unfortunately the song was heard unexpectedly at a time 
when no exact means of determining pitch was at hand. It was 
judged to lie somewhere in the octave between C 256 vs. and C 
512 vs. 
J * Is cc. 
A 

* P - 
P « 05. 
r> 
B O 00 - tTr Uv 
Melampsalta hamiltoni sp. n. 
Very short and squat, especially in the female. Vertex 
narrow, slightly produced. Antennae unusually long. Seventh 
sternite of male short, truncate, almost rectangular. Venation 
normal for the genus; veins fuscous, black apically; in the 
female basally pale brown. Hind tibiae with five spines exclusive 
of apical ones. Opercula extremely short, failing to cover the 
underlying cavity. Aedeagus as figured (11). 
Color uniform dark grey in both sexes, due to paler hairs 
and especially to an even extremely short golden pubescence 
obscuring a jet-black chitin color. Even the opercula are black 
(in other spp. usually paler than rest of body). Fore femora 
uniform black. Venter black except for suggestions of paler 
markings on segmental margins, thoracic pleura and apices of 
hind tibiae. Axillary membrane of tegmen basally yellowish. 
# Dimensions in mm. (second figure that of female). — Length 
to tip of last tergite, 15.5; 15.0; length of head, 1.9; 2.2; 
width between eyes, 2.5; 2.6; ratio, .76; .84; length of pro- 
