NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN DIPTERA. No. ix. By J. R. Malloch. (Communicated by Dr. E. W. Ferguson.) (Six Text-figures.) [Read 27th October, 1926.] I present in this paper descriptions of some new, and some previously described, genera and species of Australian flies. There is not sufficient material available yet to permit publication of revisions of the families Ephydridae and Chloropidae, and there is a paucity of material in Helomyzidae and Neottiophilidae. In the Helomyzidae I expect there are many more genera and species yet to be discovered, but possibly the genus Tapeigaster may be the only representative of the small family to which it belongs, and the status of which has created some difference of opinion amongst specialists. I have briefly discussed the relationships of this genus in the present paper. I have delayed presenting a generic synopsis of the family Sapromyzidae pending the receipt of some additional material from Dr. E. W. Ferguson, and I am inclined to believe that there must be still a large number of species of this family unknown to me, as new forms are constantly occurring in any moderate sized accession of material reaching me. Unfortunately several of the species described in this paper are represented by specimens from the British Museum and the United States National Museum, so that the actual type specimens will thus not be available in Australia to students of the order. It is hoped, however, that, later, specimens of those species will become available for deposition in some Australian museum. I have made the descriptions as comprehensive as possible so that it will undoubtedly be possible to identify the species referred to without an examination of the type specimens, unless some very closely related species yet unknown to me should occur in Australia. When the wing markings are intricate and a word description might possibly be difficult to understand I have figured the wing, but one must under-stand that there is a certain amount of variation always present in the markings of such forms, more especially in those that have the wings most intricately marked, and allowance must be made for this in identifications. Family Ephydridae. Genus Paealimna Loew. I presented a key to the three Australian species of this genus known to me in Part vii of this series of papers, and now describe a fourth Australian species. Paealimna stirlixgi, n. sp. Male. — Black, opaque, densely white dusted. Frons almost completely whitish-grey dusted, only a faint brownish mark in front of ocelli; palpi grey dusted. Thorax with indications of dark dots at bases of setulae quite evident, and larger
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