ON A NEW RHYTIPHORA IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, 
MELBOURNE. 
By Arthur M. Lea, F.E.S. 
Some time ago, Mr. C. French sent for examination a very large 
Rhytiphora, with the request that 1 should describe it if new. This 
it appeared to be, and I would gladly have described it then, but 
thinking it possible that such a fine insect would not have escaped 
description if in other entomologists’ hands, and that the Zoological 
Records are usually about two years behind in their records, I 
deferred describing it till after hearing from Mr. C. J. Chilian, of the 
British Museum, to whom I wrote. In the interim I returned the 
specimen to Mr. French, and he gave it to the National Museum, 
from whence, at my request, I have again received it. 
The species is certainly allied to R. dallasi, but is even more 
magnificent than that fine species, from which it differs in being 
considerably larger, the clothing denser, somewhat differently 
disposed, and not uniformly silvery. The most noticeable difference 
is in the elytral costae; counting the suture as the first, then the 
third and fourth on each elytron are conjoined close to apex, with 
the space between densely clothed with ochreous instead of silvery 
pubescence, and the space equal to or even more than the space 
between the second and third. In dallasi, the third and fourth are 
not conjoined at apex, and the space between them is much less 
than that between the second and third. On the prothorax, the 
dark transverse lines are two in number instead of four, as in dallasi. 
Mr. G-ahan wrote— “ I have not described nor do I know any 
species of Rhytiphora answering to the description you have sent 
me. It appears certainly to be distinct from dallasi. In all our 
four specimens of dallasi, the white elytral band between the third 
and fourth costae is very narrow, barely more than a line, and in 
one specimen it is partly broken up into spots. I notice that in 
the male of dallasi there is no pubescent depression at each side 
behind the posterior margin of the first abdominal segment, as there 
is in most of the other species of Rhytiphora. But this sexual 
character varies a good deal, being more pronounced in some species, 
and very feeble in others. Have you noticed the sex of the specimen 
of the new species ? ” . ,,, , 
I was under the impression that the type is a female, as although 
the abdomen is conspicuously variegated, the pubescent depressions 
common to so many males of the sub-family are entirely absent ; 
and in Rhytiphora I know of no other external feature by which the 
