![Thumbnail: [Volume 17, 1884 page 155]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_17/thumbnails/rsnz_17_00_0223_0155_ac_02.gif)
Section Saltatoria.
Family Locustidæ.
Genus Deinacrida
Deinacrida armiger, sp. nov.
Male: Whole insect smooth and shining and variously coloured.
Head large, oblique, broadly ovate, 1 inch long, rather wider than prothorax, bright dark red-brown, vertex much convex; eyes prominent sub-pyriform; antennæ setaceous, 3 ¾ inches long, light brown, finely and densely pubescent; a lighter-coloured ridge between eyes and antennæ with a linear oval centre; clypeus black with a narrow white lower margin bearing two dark longitudinal streaks; genæ rugose, protuberant, black; labrum large, emarginate, brown; palpi light tawny, largely clavate, tips sub-globular, whitish, pubescent; mandibles large, black and toothed, sub-rugulose, the left mandible larger and overlapping. Thorax: pro-thorax 4 lines wide, concave, sub-rugulose, whitish with a slightly reddish tinge, and blackish markings resembling a shield and its two supporters, and with narrow black anterior and posterior margins, side-margins slightly reflexed; mesothorax 2 lines wide, reddish-brown, with two minute black markings and a black dot on each side; metathorax 1 line wide, of a similar colour and two black dots; sternum of thorax, coxæ, and femora below, light fulvous-red. Abdomen thick, convex, compressed, 13 lines long, much arched at second and third segments, light reddish-brown, irrorated, with blackish bands on lower margins, of segments, and a reddish-pink hue on the lighter-coloured parts; anal appendages greyish, pubescent, Legs:
![Thumbnail: [Volume 17, 1884 page 156]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_17/thumbnails/rsnz_17_00_0224_0156_ac_02.gif)
posterior pair very stout and long, femur and tibia each about 10 lines; anterior pairs much smaller; anterior and intermediate coxæ armed with a large light-fulvous spine; the upper surface of all femora whitish with a reddish tinge, smooth, each having three longitudinal lines of short dark-brown diagonal streaks on the outer, and two lines on the inner side, but on the posterior pair those two inner rows possess short muricated points, this latter pair is also sulcated on the lower side and black at the lower end, and bears five spines on the outer and six smaller ones on the inner edge, each row gradually increasing in size downwards; posterior tibiæ very stout, dark brown, triangular, four large spines on the outer and five on the inner edge, and five spines together at the lower ends; anterior and intermediate tibiæ 7 lines long, brown, each having five pairs of spines on the lower edge, and two spines on the upper edge at the lower end; a sunken oval depression 1 ½ lines long, covered with a bluish-grey spotted and thin membrane, on both sides of anterior tibiæ near the upper end: tarsi, brown, hairy; ungues and tibiæ slightly so; pulvilli (or four cushions on sole) remarkably large, hemispherical, glabrous, bluish-grey.
Hab. Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, whence received in spirits; 1884: W.C.
Obs. This is both a peculiar and pretty species, something dapper and taking about it, from its many and bright contrast colours; the dark markings on the light ground of the prothorax are symmetrical and curious, and closely resemble a 6-angled shield with its two supporters! Hence its trivial name. It seems allied to D. (or Hemideina) megacephala, Buller; and possesses characters belonging to those two genera,—if they are really and naturally distinct, which I doubt.