Genus Uranotaenia. 
265 
black anteriorly, pale brown posteriorly ; pleurae brown, with 
patches of white scales. 
Abdomen covered with flat fuscous scales, the testaceous 
ground colour showing through in places, each segment with a 
posterior border of short golden hairs, each segment with silvery- 
white lateral apical patches ; venter with the segments white 
scaled apically. 
Legs brown, the femora yellowish at the base, with a white 
apex, and a large white patch (not band) about its apical third, 
appearing pearly-blue in some lights; in the fore legs the apex of 
the second tarsal, the whole of the third and the base of the last 
dull silvery-white in certain lights ; mid legs with the femoral 
bands not so distinct • the last tarsi with pale sheen, almost 
looking white at times; hind legs with the femoral bands more 
distinct, and white patches also at the apex of the tibiae; third 
and fourth tarsal joints pure white, and the apex of the second 
white ; hind metatarsi half as long again as the tibiae; ungues 
small, simple, and black. 
Wings densely scaled with brown, rather elongated, oval 
scales, both fork-cells long and narrow; first sub-marginal cell a 
little the longer, their bases nearly opposite one another; stems 
nearly equal, short; posterior cross-vein distant rather more 
than its own length from the mid cross-vein. 
Halteres with pale ferruginous stems and fuscous knobs with 
dusky and grey scales. 
Lernjth. —7*5 mm. 
Habitat .—New Zealand (Walker). 
Observations .—The type is in the British Museum, and, I find, 
contrary to Col. Giles’s statement, is in fair condition. It is a 
very distinct species with two-jointed palpi, certainly not a Culex, 
and, judging from its scale ornamentation and coloration, I 
cannot help placing it in the genus Uranotaenia of Arribalzaga, 
in spite of the rather long fork-cells; the basal cells are, how¬ 
ever, short, as Arribalzaga describes, and the general coloration 
places it very close to, if not in, this genus. This species has 
been mentioned by Mr. Smith as occurring in dense masses in 
New Zealand ; in one case “a train passed through a wall of 
them, three-quarters of a mile long, twenty feet high, and eighteen 
inches thick.” I am not sure, however, if Mr. Smith was 
right in his identity of the species, for no one could identify 
it from Walker’s original description, which gives no idea of its 
appearance. 
