Austropsyche bifurcata (Kimmins)

(Figs 49, 63–65, 71, 88–89, 96–97)

Diplectrona bifurcata Kimmins, in Mosely & Kimmins 1953, 344. Austropsyche bifurcata; Neboiss 1986, 219.

Material examined. Holotype ♂, Mt Kosciusko, 5,000 ft, NSW (BMNH) ; paratype 1♂, same data as for holotype (ANIC). ACT: 1♂, Bendora, 14.xii.1960, D. Colless [PT-1015]; 3♂ 2 larvae, Mt Gingera, 11.i.1967, E.F. Riek (ANIC). New South Wales: 2♂ 4♀, Dead Horse Gap, 5.i.1984, G. Theischinger [TRI-13803] . Victoria: 1♂, Kanuka Creek, Helmers Road, 420 m, East Gippsland, 11.iii.1982, J. Blyth [PT-1008].

Diagnosis. Males of Austropsyche bifurcata belong in the Au. victoriana Group; Au. bifurcata is distinguished from Au. victoriana by the absence in male genitalia, in ventral view, of the ventrolateral plates at the base of the gonopods and differs from Au. kaputar in having the mesal process on each coxopodite subapical, and short, not basal, elongate, and stout.

Description. Length of each forewing: ♂ 9.0–10.0 mm (n = 3), ♀ 11.5–12.8 mm (n = 3); median cell length about 1.3x length discoidal cell.

Male. Genitalia (Figs 63–65, 88–89): Tergite IX reduced to narrow bridge midventrally, in lateral view partly delineated from tergite X, with small convexity below phallic apparatus midapicolaterally, rounded in ventral view; abdominal tergite X apically with deep V-shaped excision; gonopods each with coxopodite about 1.5–2.0x length of harpago and well-developed irregular-shaped mesal lobe subapically; phallic apparatus with two pairs of sharply pointed, straight endothecal spines subapically.

Female (association tentative, Figs 96, 97). Resembling Au. victoriana: Terminal abdomen with sternite VIII divided to form 2 plates, in ventral view broad based, tapered distally to truncate apices, in lateral view, apicolateral angles slightly produced, triangular.

Distribution. Collected at higher altitudes of south-eastern Australia from East Gippsland, Victoria to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, New South Wales.