Sminthurus multidentata sp. nov. Plate 1, fig. 1; plate 2, figs. 31–32.

Colour: Ground colour of yellowish-brown, with green mottling on the sides of the body and on the front of the head. Furcal and anal segments green, legs and furcula pale-green. Antennae basally greenish-yellow. Ant. IV reddish-brown. Ocelli on black fields.

Clothing: Well-clothed with long, finely-ciliated setae. Five or six, larger plain stout setae on the inner edge of each tibiotarsus.

Body: Length up to 1.8 mm. Antennae one-and-a-half times as long as the front of the head, the four segments related as 3:7:9:22. Ant. IV with 18 subdivisions; apical exsertile knob and 5–6 sensory bristles. Ocelli eight to each side, all large and equal.

Legs: Claw with one large inner tooth at just above centre, two strong exterior lateral basal teeth at about one-quarter down and a further pair of smaller outer teeth at about halfway down. Empodial appendage with very narrow outer and broad inner lamellae, the inner with a very large blunt tooth and a smaller blunt tooth at the base, both just past the angle of the lamella. Whip-like bristle arises just before apex of empodial appendage and extends well beyond apex of claw. Tenent hairs absent.

Furcula: Dens approximately three times as long as mucro. Mucro with recurved apical and small pre-apical teeth in close contact at apex. Central lamella slightly granulate. Inner and outer lamellae smooth, the outer sometimes with a strong tooth about one-third back from apex. A strong basal mucronal seta on the outer edge of each mucro.

Locality: Waimate, Auckland, from flowers of strawberry plants. (Coll. D. Spiller).

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Type: Slide 3/1274 Dominion Museum Collection.