MICROLEPIDOPTERA OF NEW GUINEA 
187 
Melittia gigantea tigripes subspec. nov. 
$ 35 mm. Head brownish-black, collar yellow, becoming paler below. 
Antenna black. Palpus amber-yellow, basal segment with a broad black 
band occupying its posterior half, median segment except its base, and 
terminal, except its tip, mixed with black. (Thorax and abdomen much 
denuded, presumably black, abdominal bands not perceptible.) Venter 
black. Legs black; median leg with the femur orange-yellow, tibia with an 
orange patch at the middle above and at the apex, tarsus yellow, mixed 
with reddish-orange, above also densely irrorated with black; posterior 
leg with the femur mixed with yellow above, and towards the apex below, 
tibia above yellow suffused with reddish-orange, more so posteriorly, 
laterally with two bands of pale yellow irroration, before and beyond the 
middle, respectively, and a deep orange oblique apical band, black colour 
projecting between these bands on the orange-yellow hairs on the dorsum, 
so as to form large, triangular patches; posterior tibia below sparsely 
mixed with orange hairs from the base to below the first band, more 
densely so below the second band; posterior tarsus with an inwardly 
oblique deep orange band, posterior half of the tarsus laterally mixed 
with pale yellow, this colour not extending over the hair-tufts. Fore wing 
yellowish-hyaline, more distinctly tinged yellowish before the discoidal 
vein, margins with moderate deep brown streaks, mixed with a few 
fulvous scales, on the costa this streak extended as far as the cell; veins 
narrowly streaked with dark brown, vein 2 streaked broader; discoidal 
fascia broad, inwardly oblique, dilated below, but hardly reaching the 
lower angle of the cell; its anterior edge projecting, and continued as a 
narrow streak along the anterior part of the median branch in the cell; 
this fascia deep brown, mixed with fulvous. Cilia dark fuscous. Hind wing 
yellowish- hyaline, margin and cells narrowly dark brown, cilia dark fuscous. 
Hollandia, sea level, July, 1938. One specimen. Differs from the nominate 
form by the darker costa in the fore wing, and by the differently coloured 
posterior legs. 
Melittia amboinensis Felder, 1861 
Melittia amboinensis Felder, 1861, Sitz. Ber. Akad. Wien, vol. 43, p. 28. Walker, 
List Lepid. Heter. Brit. Mus., vol. 31, suppl. 1, p. 16, 1864. Swinhoe, Catal. Lep. 
Het. Mus. Oxf., vol. 1, p. 37, 1892. Le Cerf in Oberthur, Etud. Lep. comp., vol. 
14, p. 192, etc., 1917. Hampson, Novit. Zool., vol. 26, p. 87, 1919. Dalla Torre & 
Strand, Lepid. Catal., part 31, pp. 137 —138, 1925. Gaede in Seitz, Gross-Schmett., 
Indo-Austr., vol. 10, p. 789, pi. 51, figs., 1933. 
Distribution: Sikkim, Assam, Madras, Burma, Malaya, Sumatra, 
Borneo, Java, Bali, Lombok, Celebes, Sangir, Sula, Amboina, Ceram, 
British New Guinea, Trobriand Islands, Queensland. 
