This paper is designed to improve the definition of some Eulophid parasites, mostly of coffee leaf-miners (Leucoptera spp.) and of the web spinner Odites artigena (Meyr.), which are being studied in East Africa. Some of these were previously unknown or without valid names. It is convenient to include a tropicopolitan parasite of Agromyzidae leaf-mining in vegetables and a parasite of a Coleophorid case-bearer from the Bahamas.

In the Elachertine genus Cirrospilus Westw., a key is given for the separation of the African species affecting coffee leaf-miners. These are compared with the European species, and the new species also with its closest American relative. Evidence suggests that the supposed subgeneric divisions cannot be maintained.

In the Eulophinae, Crateulophus Masi is recalled from synonymy and is compared with Sympiesis Först. Relevant species are placed accordingly, and keys are given to species of both genera. A new parasite of Odites is ascribed to Microlycus Thorns., a genus previously known only in continental Europe.

In the Entedontinae, a key is given to the relevant species now placed in Achrysocharis Gir. Derostenus Westw. and some related genera are more closely defined. A new genus is proposed for Derostenus coffeae Ferrière 1936, and a further new genus for another parasite of Leucoptera and its relatives. A recorded but previously unnamed species is placed in Chrysocharis Först., and both this and C. lepelleyi Ferrière are compared with European species of that genus.

The genus Proacrias Ihering 1913, based on the South American species P. coffeae Ihering, has been placed in synonymy with Neochrysocharis Kurdyumov 1912. Attempts to trace the unique type of Perinetia coffeae Risbec 1952 have not met with success.

Simulium (Phoretomyia) dukei sp.n., an occasional man-biter, is described and its systematic position discussed. Its larvae and pupae are associated with the prawn Atya africana Bouvier which is the only known host of phoretic Simuliids apart from river-crabs and mayfly nymphs. Four other phoretic species of Simulium are known in West Cameroon, and descriptions of two of them, S. berneri Freeman and S. ovazzae Grenier & Mouchet, are amplified.

This paper is one of a series analysing the quantitative effects of various factors on the biting rates of Culicoides furens (Poey) and C. barbosai Wirth & Blanton in Jamaica. It is concerned with the relationship between their biting rates and four meteorological variables: wind speed, temperature, illumination and saturation deficit. The methods used and the full data have already been published.

Geromyia gen.n. is erected to accommodate the millet grain midge, Itonida penniseti Felt, 1920, a species that attacks developing grain of bulrush millet, Pennisetum typhoides and other species of Pennisetum. Cecidomyia penniseti Felt, 1920, Itonida seminis Felt, 1921 and Cecidomyia pennisetoides Barnes, 1956 are synonymised under G. penniseti. The male, female and larva are described and illustrated in detail and the life-cycle and seasonal biology are described from field observations at Bambey, Senegal. G. penniseti is recorded from P. typhoides in India, the Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal, Niger and Upper Volta and is provisionally recognised in collections from P. polystachyon and P. pedicellatum in Ghana, Uganda, Madagascar and Nigeria.

Othreis materna (L.) is an important fruit-sucking moth in Rajasthan (India). The immature stages are described in detail and illustrated by means of photographs and setal maps, points distinguishing this species from O. fullonia (Cl.) being noted. Females laid 200–400 eggs; the durations of the egg, larval and pupal stages on Tinospora cordifolia were 3–4, 16–23 and 10–13 days, respectively.

Two trials were undertaken in North Queensland dairy pastures to test cultural and chemical control of the funnel ant Aphaenogaster pythia Forel. Funnel antinfested pasture was ploughed, cultivated and replanted with several grass species and the legume Glycine javanica. Grazing with dairy cattle was controlled to maintain a dense sward. In untreated pasture where grazing was continuous, funnel ant mound building remained consistently high over the three-year period, but where grazing was regulated mound building was significantly reduced after three months and was negligible after three years. There was a significant inverse relationship between sward density and A. pythia mound numbers.

The life-history of Pseudorhyssa sternata Merrill was investigated under natural and artificial conditions.

When P. sternata and Rhyssa persuasoria (L.) females were present on Siricidinfested logs, P. sternata observed the primary parasite making drill shafts, and after the primary withdrew its ovipositor and moved away, P. sternata located the shaft and inserted its ovipositor to gain access to the host. P. sternata was able to locate R. persuasoria drill shafts aged 1–38 days.

P. sternata females were stimulated to oviposition behaviour when presented with paper drilled by R. persuasoria, and this response was enhanced by the presence of wet Siricid frass, or the symbiotic fungus of Siricids. Ovipositor probing was also made through artificial holes into frass. Bioassay of R. persuasoria vaginal and venom glands resulted in considerable probing into filter paper impregnated with vaginal gland extract.

It was concluded that P. sternata females probably locate Siricid-infested trees by responding to a generalised stimulus that is potent in larval frass, and which possibly derives from the symbiotic fungus. The cleptoparasite probably finds the drill-shaft by responding to a secretion of the vaginal gland of the primary parasite.

An experiment was carried out in 1967 to assess the effects and economics of aerial applications of pyrethrum as an aerosol spray against a high density tsetse population consisting mainly of Glossina pallidipes Aust. in northern Tanzania. Complete eradication was attempted, and six applications of a 0·4% w/v solution of natural pyrethrins, synergised with 2% piperony1 butoxide in power kerosene, were applied at three-week intervals over three square miles. Application was from a Cessna 182E fitted with one Micronair rotary atomiser. Populations of G. pallidipes, assessed from fly-path catches, were reduced 95% after three applications. The final three applications had little effect and it was considered that unfavourable meteorological conditions and full leaf cover were the main factors responsible. It is suggested that, in view of the high initial kill of the fly and the possibility of using pyrethrum economically against tsetse for human settlement schemes, further work should be carried out with this insecticide.

New material available as a result of a visit to Madagascar to search for parasites of the coffee bugs Antestiopsis spp. enabled a re-examination of the taxonomy of the genus in that country. It is shown that the species, formerly placed in the genus Antestia, belong to the genus Antestiopsis. Descriptions of the known species, A. clymeneis (Kirk.) and A. amberensis (Cachan), and subspecies of A. clymeneis are given together with a description of a new subspecies from wild Rubiaceae. A comparison with an Indian species, A. cruciata (F.), and the A. orbitalis group from Africa shows that all are closely related. Notes on their biology and parasites of A. clymeneis are also included.

During 1966 a Rothamsted and a New Jersey light-trap were operated at two coastal sites in Dorset, southern England. They collected fifteen species of Culicoides but did not give an accurate estimate of the relative importance of the anthropophilic species in the areas as shown by human-bait catches. Although unfed females predominated, gravid individuals formed a substantial part of the catch. Few males were caught. The seasonal incidence of the commoner species at the two sites were compared. Fecundity, as estimated by dissection, was higher than previously recorded for Ceratopogonidae, reaching a mean of 153/female in C. maritimus Kieff. A few females of several species had well developed fat reserves indicating the possibility of autogeny, hibernation or a migratory phase.

Light-trap catches of Heliothis armigera (Hb.) reach peaks during the wet seasons, April and November–January. Initial infestation of seed beans by H. armigera occurs in April–May at the time of flowering of the early-sown crop, the adults probably originating from an earlier generation on maize. Two generations are completed during the main seed bean season, the first on early-sown beans and the second on later beans, and the dry period July–October may be passed in pupal diapause. Damage, caused by the older larvae eating the seeds in the pod, is prevented by spraying the young larvae with DDT (25% e.c. at 3 pt/2 gal spray/acre) (the standard treatment) or endosulfan (35% e.c. at 1½ pt/2 gal spray/acre) at about six weeks after the beans emerge.

Adults of the Pentatomid Nezara viridula (L.) invade bean fields from alternative host-plants at the same time as H. armigera. This species, even in small numbers, causes the loss of young pods and also damages or kills the developing seed. It is not controlled by the standard DDT treatment for H. armigera, but the following insecticides were found to be effective: γBHC 20% e.c. (1¼ pt), dieldrin 18% e.c. (2 pt) and endosulfan 35% e.c. (1½ pt) in 2 gal spray/acre. Where N. viridula and H. armigera are found together, the standard recommendation is endosulfan 35% e.c. (1½ pt/2 gal spray/acre).

The Coreids Acanthomia horrida (Germ.) and A. tomentosicollis (Stål) cause damage similar to that of N. viridula, but are serious only when infestations are heavy. They were found to be controlled by DDT, dieldrin or endosulfan at the rates given above.

Alatae of the bean aphis Aphis fabae Scop, invade bean fields mainly during the first two weeks of the crop, producing apterae which concentrate on the tip of the plants. Damage (stunting, and loss of flowers and pods) is serious only when large populations of apterae are produced on a high proportion of the young plants. The early infestation demands control measures separate from those for the other pests, the most effective being methyl-demeton 50% e.c. (½ pt/2 gal spray/acre) applied 3–4 weeks after emergence. Endosulfan, although promising and far less toxic than methyl-demeton to larvae of the predator Cheilomenes lunata (F.), was discarded on grounds of cost, as was dimethoate. Aphid populations reached a peak during July and August and decreased with the warmer weather in September. A large number of alternative host-plants is listed, but the source of the primary flight into beans is not known.

Melanagromyza phaseoli (Tryon), the life-cycle of which is completed in 23 days, is unimportant on seed beans as it is least abundant during the growing period of the main crop, but may damage plants suffering from water stress. Tunnelling in stems by larvae was controlled by seed dressings of aldrin or heptachlor (both 40% wettable powders mixed with seed at 1:200 w/w).

Laboratory and field cage trials were made with male Glossina morsitans orientalis Vanderplank treated with tepa or gamma irradiation to assess the ability of the sterile males to compete with untreated males for normal females when the ratios of treated males to untreated males to untreated females ranged from 4:1:5 to 5:2:5. Irradiation of the pupal and adult stages with 8000 and 15000 rad or 8000 and 12000 rad, respectively, reduced reproduction by 87–100% (mean, 95%). Contact for 60 min on a glass surface coated with 10 mg tepa/ft2 or exposure to 0·25 ml of 5% tepa in a wind tunnel usually produced complete sterility (mean, 99%) in 0- or 2-day-old male flies. Trials in the laboratory and in a small field cage (288 ft2) with chemosterilised flies generally reduced reproduction to near the expected values. Similar results were obtained with male flies emerging from irradiated puparia, but males treated as adults produced somewhat smaller reductions than expected. Unreplicated competitive trials with chemosterilised and irradiated males in a large field cage (8100 ft2) produced considerably smaller reductions in reproduction than expected, suggesting that treated males released in nature might not compete for normal females as readily as untreated males.

Laboratory and field studies were made to study the flight behaviour and development of thoracic musculature in male Glossina morsitans orientalis Vanderplank collected as adults near Kariba, Rhodesia, or emerged from puparia collected there. Muscular development, measured as thoracic residual dry weight, was significantly inhibited by confinement in the laboratory and flight activity declined when laboratory-emerged flies were maintained in the laboratory. Survival of laboratory-emerged flies in the field was only 17% that of field-emerged flies. Irreversible behavioural and physiological inhibition in flight and in flight musculature is therefore believed to occur within the first few hours of adult life as a result of confinement; 70–80% of the confined population was affected. These inhibitions can be avoided by using field-emerged adults for field trials.

A species of Gelechiid moth bred from larvae living in galls on the leaves of an unidentified species of Eugenia in New Ireland is described as new and is named Idiophantis eugeniae sp. n. The species is differentiated from I. chiridota Meyr., to which it is closely related and which occurs in the Indo-Malayan region. Illustrations are given of the adult male and the genitalia of both sexes.

Laboratory and field investigations into sex attraction and mating behaviour of Glossina morsitans orientalis Vanderplank have been described. Male flies were not attracted to volatile and soluble compounds from two- to three-day-old mature virgin females, or to virgin females in a simple olfactometer. Removal of antennae from either sex did not appreciably reduce insemination rates after 24–48-h mating periods compared with normal flies. Similar numbers of wild male flies were caught off oxen baited or non-baited with mature virgin females. G. m. orientalis probably does not produce a pheromone.

Male flies appeared to be sexually activated only after movement by the female. Mating success was reduced in the dark and when the male's eyes were painted, but blinding the female fly did not reduce insemination. Mating was similar with or without wings and halteres and the sounds produced by them.

Time between pairing the sexes and the start of mating tended to increase, and the percentage of inseminated females accepting two or more matings decreased, after the first copulation. Female flies rarely re-mated within a day. Virgin female flies accepted males passively with partly open wings, and mated females rejected further copulation with closed wings, activity to shake the male off, and primarily a downward-curved abdomen. Virgin female flies mated for periods of 1–45 min did not receive sperm but successful ad libitum mating was reduced a day later. Insemination rates decreased with females older than seven days and reached zero 28–83 days after eclosion, while 37-day-old males inseminated 93% of young females.

The puparia of some Cyclorrhaphous Diptera resemble and are found among those of tsetse flies (Glossina spp.). Those of Plesiocyptera sp., Argyrophylax aureiventris (Villen.) (Tachinidae) and? Physocephala (Conopidae), are described and illustrated, as are the larval cephalopharyngeal skeletons recovered from the puparia.

The daily oviposition rhythm of the tea red spider mite, Oligonychus coffeae (Nietn.) under laboratory and field conditions is described. In the laboratory, the oviposition rate was steady under constant light or darkness, but under alternating light and darkness (LD 12:12 and 8:16) showed peaks soon after the change from light to darkness and vice versa. Under field conditions, oviposition peaks occurred at dawn and at dusk when there is a rapid change in light intensity.