Since Mr. F. W. Edwards' “Revised Keys to the known larvae of African Culicinae” appeared (Bull. Ent. Res. iii, pp. 373–385) the larvae of several additional species—all belonging to the tribe Culicini—have been found in the Gold Coast Colony. These larvae, collected at Accra and at Sunyani in Ashanti, are briefly described here and their position in Mr. Edwards' keys indicated so far as possible.

Like the preceding instalment, this part deals mainly with species bred on the West Coast of Africa. I have to thank Dr. L. Masi, of Genoa, for fig. 4, illustrating the wing base of Eusemion italicum, Masi.

A. (Coelodiazesis) plumbeus, Hal.

The life-history of this species has recently been fully described by Christophers (Ind. Jl. Med. Res., iii, Jan. 1916, p. 489) from larvae obtained in tree-holes in the neighbourhood of Simla. It is somewhat surprising that a species of Anopheles should have such a wide range, especially since tree-breeding mosquitos are usually more local in their distribution than other kinds. I believe, however, that Christophers was perfectly correct in his conclusion that A. barianensis, James, is the same species as A. plumbeus, Hal.

As stated in my previous paper on the Ethiopian species of Dacus, the Oriental forms of this genus show much more variation in their structural and ornamental features. They may be therefore divided into no less than five well defined genera, only one of which is common to both faunal areas. Reserving for later publication a third paper on the Oriental (and Australian) species, I will give here some notes on the classification and feeding habits of the species from British India.

Kaduna, the future capital of Nigeria, is situated in the Northern Provinces, on the River Kaduna, at an elevation of roughly 2,200 feet. The present Kaduna is a small station (Kaduna Bridge) south of the river, but the capital now in the process of construction is some two or three miles to the north, near the small native town of Doka.

Being instructed to make an Entomological Survey of the district, with especial reference to Glossina and the resulting presence of trypanosomes in cattle, I left Lagos on 30th July 1914, reaching Kaduna Bridge on 1st August.

In the following descriptions I have dealt mainly with part of a small but valuable collection of Coccid Chalcids, sent by Mr. W. H. Patterson from Aburi, Gold Coast. The excellent condition in which the insects were received may be due to some extent to the fact they were bred specimens, but it also owes something, I think, to the method of packing employed. Into each tube (1¾in. × ½ in. ) a little melted naphthalene had been run with a piece of moderately thick paper on the top ; above this again the Chalcids were loosely enclosed in screws, or (in the case of minute Eulophids and Aphelinines) in small triangles of tissue paper, and the tube coated and sealed with paraffin wax.

Eupelminus tarsatus, Waterst. (1916).

Eupelminus tarsatus, Waterston, Bull. Ent. Res., vi, Feb. 1916, p. 389, figs. 7 and 8 ; Lamborn, ibid., vii, May 1916, p. 34.

A series of both sexes of this parasite of Glossina morsitans enables me to describe the male for the first time and the female more fully. One of the striking features about this species, apart from its remarkable sexual dimorphism, is the great range in size which it exhibits. The females run from 3½ mm. to 5 mm. and the males from 1½ mm. to 2¼ mm., with a range in the alar expanse of 2¼ mm. to 3¾ mm. The larger female examples are invariably darker and more metallic in coloration. Dr. Lamborn is certainly right in correlating the smaller size of some of the parasites with a reduced food supply (l.c. p. 35). I cannot yet agree, however, that the parasitic status of E. tarsatus is definitely fixed by our present knowledge of its habits. Plainly the proportion of Mutilla-parasitised puparia supplied to the Eupelminus females was larger than could have occurred under natural conditions. Again, the factors, whatever they are, inducing Mutilla to oviposit in a particular puparium may be equally decisive for the female Eupelminus. If, for example, in two cases three Eupelminus punctures all close together could be seen with a high-power lens one might suggest that some structural peculiarity invited the attack. Nor, incidentally, is it legitimate to infer that because a puparium observed to be stung produced no Eupelminus the attack had failed. The presumption is that the attack had not been delivered, stinging and ovipositing being, in many cases, two separate processes. Many Chalcids plunge the ovipositor into ova, puparia, etc., and then, applying the mouth to the wound, suck up the contents which have been expelled. In other cases the first stinging observed is merely the narcotising and rendering antiseptic of the host, which precedes the real introduction of the ova. The parasitic status of Eupelminus can, in fact, be settled only by examination of puparia, collected under natural conditions, from which the Chalcids have been noted to emerge.

The method of poisoning flies by the exposure of solutions of sodium arsenite and sugar is one that has been advocated by entomologists in Italy and in South Africa for some years, and yielded good results in Mesopotamia in 1916; for in hot climates, where flies come readily to sugar solutions, the use of an outdoor poison is specially valuable. But there are obvious disadvantages in using any arsenic solutions; for not only are they poisonous in themselves, but the disposal of residues is not easy, as the arsenic and sugar remain poisonous if thrown away, or if they dry on sand or soil. It would thus be useful to substitute for arsenic some compound less poisonous to man and less stable in a soluble form when thrown away.

Grenada is the southernmost of the string of Islands composing the Lesser Antilles, if we except Trinidad and Tobago, some ninety odd miles further south, which lie close to the South American mainland of Venezuela. Geologically the Island is volcanic; basalts, lavas, cinder beds, gravel beds, agglomerates, various earths or clays forming the soil and subsoil of valleys, slopes, ridges, cones and craters, from sea-level to some 3,000 feet of elevation.

Nietner in 1880 (“ The Coffee Tree and its Enemies ”) described an Aphis from coffee found in Ceylon and Java as Aphis coffeae. The description is as follows:—“ Both sexes naked, shiny pitch-black with whitish rostrum and legs and greenish abdomen. The rostrum reaches beyond the base of the second pair of legs. The antennae are 7-jointed, the first, second and sixth being short, the rest long, the two basal joints are black, the rest are whitish, black towards apex. Legs with femora and tarsi nearly black, tibiae nearly white, hind legs with base of tibiae slightly curved. Male four-winged, with black stigma in the upper ones. Female apterous. Abdomen in both sexes 2-corniculate and with an anal tube. Size moderate. Young individuals light coloured.” Apparently the male and female described refer to the alate viviparous and apterous viviparous female.

Prolaelius glossinae, sp. nov.

♀. Nigra ; scapo apice, flagello articulo primo, tibiis tarsisque anticis brunneotestaceis ; alis medio late leviterque infuscatis ; basi et marginibus hyalinis.

Head as long as the greatest breadth, narrowed both in front of and behind the eyes ; opaque, very finely and shallowly reticulate, with sparse piliferous punctures. Eyes separated across the frons by twice the diameter of either and situated nearer to the base of the mandibles than to the posterior margin of the head ; ovate and smooth ; ocelli in an equilateral triangle, the posterior pair a little farther from each other than from the hind margin of the head. Antennae thirteen-jointed, as long as the thorax and propodeon together. Scape about twice the pedicel, the latter slightly exceeding the first funicular joint ; joints of the funicle subequal, no definite club ; the last joint and the fourth and fifth of the funicle longer, equalling the pedicel.

I remained in the proclaimed area till 6th August 1915, then returning to the vicinity of Monkey Bay for the purpose of endeavouring to establish artificial breeding places on a large scale.

While in the proclaimed area I took the opportunity of completing my survey of the distribution of Glossina morsitans, especially in the neighbourhood of Rifu and Kuti described by Dr. Shircore (Bull. Ent. Res., v, p. 87) as “primary centres 1 and 2,” which I had been unable to examine last season before the advent of the rains. As in the case of “ centres 3 and 4,” at Nyansato and Lingadzi respectively, I have not been able to find that the fly is sufficiently localised, even when the dry season is far advanced, as to render feasible any attempt to control it by prophylactic clearing of the bush. In the Rifu district there is a range of rocky hills and high ground running more or less parallel to the lake, with corresponding modification of the soil, so that a zone of scrub has sprung up, from half a mile to two miles in width, consisting very largely of thorn bush, among which are a few big trees. Towards the north this gradually dwindles, to be replaced by the borassus palms usually growing in the sandy ground along the Lake shore, and towards the south it gradually widens out and becomes continuous with the Kuti bush some five miles distant. Throughout its whole extent the fly was plentiful.

Female, adult. More or less circular or faintly pentagonal ; low convex ; pseudo-margin strongly rounded, giving the insect a markedly “crustliform” (Green) appearance ; margin very thin and shallow ; anterior stigmatic clefts well defined. Dorsum with a slightly subcentral depression, from which there arise strong radial striae extending to the pseudo-margin. Anal cleft fused. Anal lobes in the subcentral depression, so that they appear almost in the middle of the back. Colour of dorsum brownish black, with minute reddish-buff glandular spots. Venter coffee-brown. Detached scurfy particles of a somewhat glassy secretion within the pseudomargin, and six larger particles of similar material, each resting upon a minute tubercle, arranged in a parallelogram near the central depression. Derm cells closely packed together, very irregular in shape, many being markedly attenuated at one extremity; these are divided into more or less definite radial bands corresponding to the spaces between external striae; in the central area of the dorsum they are almost obscured by the dense chitin, so that only the minute central pores are traceable; in this same area are a number of larger and clearer pores varying considerably in size, the larger ones radiating from the anal lobes.

Amongst some insects bred this year from Lecanium viride on coffee in Mauritius, and forwarded to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology for identification by M. d'Emmerez de Charmoy, were two species of Chalcids belonging to the genera Diversinervus, Silv. (1915) and Tetrastichus, Hal. (1843) respectively. The former, which appears to differ considerably from the genotype, is here described as a new species ; the latter so closely agrees with Tetrastichus sicarius, Silv., that I have not thought it advisable to propose a new name. My best thanks are due to Professor Silvestri for his kindness in examining preparations of both species.

Pseudococcus bicaudatus, Keuchenius, Medel. v.h. Besoekisch Proefstation, Djemba, No. 16, 1915, p. 63 [see also Review of Applied Entomology, Nov. 1915, p. 647].

The author's detailed description of the supposed new species shows quite clearly that he is dealing with Pseudococcus virgatus, described by Cockerell in 1893. The species occurs commonly throughout the tropics of both hemispheres and has been described by different authors under several names, e.g. ceriferus (Newstead), talini (Green), and marchali (Vayssière).

Fiorinia morrisi, Brittin, Trans. N.Z. Inst., Wellington, xlvii, 1914 (issued July 1915), p. 149 [see also Rev. Appl. Entom., Dec. 1915, p. 74].

Through the courtesy of the author, I have had an opportunity of examining typical examples of this insect, and find that they agree with examples of F. asteliae (ex coll. W. M. Maskell). Fiorinia asteliae is now considered to be a synonym of F. gigas of Maskell, and both have been rightly relegated to the genus Leucaspis.

Some two years ago Mr. E. V. Hines, of Winton, Queensland, sent me some fly-maggots which were attacking the sheep on his station. On breeding them out it was seen that they were referable to two different genera—Pycnosoma and Sarcophaga.

Specimens were later submitted to Mr. E. E. Austen, of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), who informed me that they were Pycnosoma rufifacies (Macq.) and a Sarcophaga which was probably a new species.

I take this opportunity of extending my cordial thanks to Mr. Austen for his kindly assistance.

The object of this short communication is to state the result of an enquiry into the solubility of the incrustation of the mussel scale-insect which is destructive to the bark of various cultivated trees, particularly of the apple tree. The control of this pest by means of insecticides to a large extent depends upon getting access to the insect by dissolving the scale with which it covers itself soon after it settles down on the bark for the rest of its life. Whatever may be the development of the insect, unless the scale can be dissolved, at least at its point of contact with the bark, no great result can be expected from the application of insecticides.

Further collections from Mr. G. F. Hill, gathered in the neighbourhood of Port Darwin, have produced several interesting new species which are described below.

Aspidiotus destructor, Sign.

On foliage of Pandanus odoratissimus, Darwin, N. T. (Hill, no. 636). These puparia have a rather more brownish tint than is usual in the species.

Aspidiotus fodiens, Mask.

On Melaleuca leucadendron, Koolpinyah, N.T. (Hill, 17, 18), and on Pithecolobium moniliferum, Stapleton, N.T. (Hill, 637). In the older examples from Melaleuca the pygidial lobes are worn and are not of such a regular outline as in the fresher material from Pithecolobium, but the two forms agree in all essential characters.

Aspidiotus orientalis, Newst.

On Ficus orbicularis (Hill, 23), and on “ Milkwood Tree ” (Hill, 24), Darwin, N.T. Also “ on undetermined introduced tree ” (Hill, 639).

Aspidiotus unilobis, Mask.

On Melaleuca leucadendron, Koolpinyah, N.T. (Hill, 18, 19). And on the same plant at Stapleton, N.T. (Hill, 638).

Aspidiotus (Aonidiella) miniatae, sp. nov.

Puparium of female small, circular, moderately convex ; dull ochreous white ; pellicles proportionately large, reddish or reddish-brown. Diameter 0·75 to 1 mm.

A small number of Haematopota from the Congo were recently sent for determination to the British Museum by M. E. Roubaud of the Pasteur Institute. Among these were specimens of an interesting new species of the H. pertinens group, and as M. Roubaud was kind enough to say that the type of this species might be deposited in the British Museum, I undertook to describe it, including at the same time, at Dr. G. A. K. Marshall's request, descriptions of a few of the numerous unrecorded African species of this genus in the collections of the British Museum and the Imperial Bureau of Entomology.

The Imperial Bureau of Entomology have received the following six species of Rhynchota from Colombia, forwarded by Mr. M. T. Dawe, the Director of Agriculture, who reports two of them Trichocentrus sp., and Collaria oleosa as injurious to rice plantations, and the remaining four, Monalonion atratum, M. illustris, M. megiston, and M. collaris as damaging cacao pods. Of these Monalonions, two are here described as new species.