The genus Leptoconops was erected in 1890 by the Australian dipterist Skuse for a minute black Chironomid fly which he captured at Woronora, near Sydney, New South Wales. This genus he placed in the last of the three sections into which he divided the family Chironomidae, namely, the Ceratopogonina. The fly greatly resembled a small species of Simulium in general facies, and presented certain peculiar characters which rendered it strikingly distinct from other members of the section. Indeed, certain authors (Mik 1894, Johannsen 1905) have since drawn attention to the marked similarity in the wing venation of an American species (L. torrens, Twns.) and Corynoneura, a genus of the subfamily Chironominae. Later (1907) Noé suggested the formation of an additional subfamily—Leptoconopinae—for the Australian and allied species (at that time classified in three genera), and Malloch (1915), although acknowledging that the genus Tersesthes, Twns. (a synonym of Leptoconops), was unknown to him, associated it with the Chironominae rather than with the Ceratopogoninae. Apart from the wing venation, however, Leptoconops shows no affinities with Corynoneura, but rather agrees with the Ceratopogonine midges, particularly in regard to the structure of the thorax and mouth-parts. Several species of Leptoconops have now been described, but owing to differences in the interpretation of, or slight variations in, some of the generic characters given by Skuse, as well as to subsequent descriptive errors, they have, in greater part, been referred to the genera Tersesthes, Twns., and Mycterotypus, Noé. As was to be expected, however, the close agreement exhibited in the diagnoses of these genera and of Leptoconops has caused several authors to suggest their identity; but indefinite or partial conclusion* only were reached, since the genotype of Leptoconops (L. stygius, Sk.) was not re-examined.

The unusual and prolonged drought that we have experienced this year has had a marked effect upon the mosquitos. So much so, that while last year I found no difficulty in obtaining any of the eleven species which so far have been found to exist in this locality, yet for many weeks now it has been impossible to obtain any but a few Anopheles maculipennis (adults), Anopheles bifurcatus (larvae), Culicella morsitans (larvae, pupae, and adults), and Culex pipiens (larvae, pupae and adults).

This paper is intended as the first of a series in which it is proposed to record the results of an examination of a large collection of termites from various parts of the Australian continent. The greater part of this collection has been gathered in the northern districts of the Northern Territory, and in North Queensland, but during the past year it has been considerably increased by the addition of numerous small collections received from correspondents in Victoria, Western Australia and South Queensland, and now contains individuals from over 800 colonies. Through the courtesy of the authorities of the South Australian Museum I have been able to examine a number of co-type specimens which have been of the greatest assistance in clearing up many doubtful identifications. In addition to these, I have been able to study many species from localities not represented in my own collection.

As in the case of the Tabanidae, which have already been described, the material upon which the following paper is based was collected by the author during the Palestine Campaign of 1917–18.

A mosquito survey, having as its object an enquiry into the distribution and prevalence in certain Far Eastern Ports of Stegomyia fasciata, the known carrier of yellow fever, was begun, on behalf of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, by Dr. A. T. Stanton, whose report was published in the Bulletin of Entomological Research (Vol. x, pt. 3). As it seemed unlikely that he would be at leisure to complete the observations by a survey of the ports of China and Japan, as had been planned, the writer was instructed, in April 1921, by the Government of the Federated Malay States, at the suggestion of the Imperial Bureau, to complete the enquiry.

In the “Bulletin of Entomological Research” for December 1920 Dr. J. M. Dalziel deals in a most interesting and instructive way with the various, and sometimes curious breeding-places of mosquitos in Lagos. He mentions the occurrence of mosquito larvae in saline waters, and in a foot-note refers to a number of salt-water species.

Adult female pyriform, broadest across the meso- and metathorax; cephalothoracic area rounded in front, slightly contracted behind, where there is a well-defined transverse grove; abdomen tapering to the posterior extremity; frons and margins of thorax and abdomen with a few spiniform setae. Antennae rudimentary, each bearing a single long straight seta. Anterior spiracles with a small group of parastigmatic pores (fig. 1, A). Pygidium with a well defined, strongly chitinised, pyriform, reticulated area, the lacunae oval or round, and disposed regularly; the part posterior to the anus, very heavily chitinised, obscuring the lacunae. Circumgenital glands present, consisting of a continuous arch representing the united median and

anterior lateral groups, with the posterior laterals separated by a short space; the anterior laterals show signs of being in two rows. Dorsal pores numerous, comparatively small, circular, arranged in longitudinal series on each side of the pygidium, and extending on to the margins of the abdomen (fig. 1, B). Pygidial margin with three pairs of lobes and numerous angular projections laterad, each lobe notched on the outer side; two pairs of conspicuous claviform paraphyses, each with a large separate circular knob like the dot of an i (fig. 1, C). Length, 1 mm.; greatest breadth about 0·75 mm.

Through the kindness of Professor E. O. Essig, of the University of California, I have been enabled to examine a collection of Coccidae from Formosa, made by M. Maki and S. Inamura, and also a small amount of material from Foochow, China, collected by Mr. C. R. Kellogg. It is upon this material that the present paper is for the most part based. In addition to this, I am taking advantage of the opportunity to rectify certain errors that have been made in the identification of a few species from Japan.

Several species of Bibionidae are very common in the adult state during the spring and early summer in Britain, but their larvae seem to have been very little studied. The latter frequently occur in large numbers together, and are from time to time reported to have caused damage to various crops.

The following descriptions are based on material submitted for determination by Mr. T. Bainbrigge Fletcher, the Imperial Entomologist, Pusa, Bihar.

The following notes deal with the Agaonidae represented in a small collection of fig insects formed in 1907–8, in Sarawak, by Mr. J. Hewitt, now Director of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa.

Of the many insects which we now know to be dangerous menaces to the health of man, the house-fly, Musca domestica, has few (if any) equals, but the facts relating to its germ-transmitting capacity are unfortunately still very incomplete. In the case of those Anopheline mosquitos which transmit the parasites of malaria, and the tsetse-flies, which infect man and other animals with trypanosomes, we are in a position to estimate the inefficiency and loss of life directly attributable to them, for in each case we know most of the species directly responsible for the dissemination of these parasites. But in the case of the house-fly we have no conclusive proof that Bacillus typhosus, for instance, is carried by one, or more than one, species of Musca. Further, by the time the cases are diagnosed, the infected flies have either died or disappeared, and it is rarely possible to trace the infection to them. It is true, however, that many observers have recorded the finding of pathogenic bacteria in, and on, species of Musca, but the final proof of the identity of these bacteria has invariably been faulty. Yet in spite of these discrepancies there is no doubt, from everyday practical observation the world over, that one, and more than one, species of Musca regularly carry the bacilli of the enteric fever, cholera and dysentery groups, as well as many other pathogenic organisms, especially the virus of trachoma, from infected material and deposit them on food and the human body. In investigating outbreaks of infectious diseases the house-fly should always be considered as a possible vector of the causal organisms.

In March 1920 my attention was called by Dr. F. W. Dootson, University Lecturer in Chemistry, to the fact that a beetle was breeding in numbers in a jar of argol in the Chemical Laboratory of Cambridge University. The insect proved on examination to be the introduced Ptinid, Trigonogenius globulum, Solier, a form related to the household insect, Niptus hololeucus, to which it bears at first sight a slight resemblance.

During recent years the number of described species of Australian Tabanidae, or March-flies, as they are almost universally called in this country, has been increased very considerably, and with this increase there has come a wider knowledge of the distribution of the various genera and species. While advancement has taken place in this direction, little progress appears to have been made towards acquiring an accurate knowledge of the life-history and habits of any of these flies, and, up to the present time, no precise information has been published concerning oviposition, larval development, feeding habits and pupation of any of our numerous species.

This is an account of two different inquiries carried out on the same safari in the Lumbwa country of Kenya Colony early in 1920. The problems are of the same type, the suspected transmission of disease by blood-sucking flies, and the second investigation arose out of the first. It therefore seems best to deal with them both in a single paper.

Mr. Malcolm E. MacGregor's interesting paper, “The Influence of Drought upon Mosquito Life in Surrey” (Bull. Ent. Res. xii, p. 205), has led me to examine our records of observations made in that county in connection with inquiries into indigenous malaria in England. As regards certain areas of the country during the past year, our experience of the scarcity of some kinds of mosquitos is the same as Mr. MacGregor's, but (if it is desired to draw conclusions for the country as a whole) it seems important also to note that there are other areas in which the findings differ from those in the particular locality upon which he reported. Dorking, Epsom and Arbrook Common, which are within a few miles of Wisley, are examples of such areas. In these and some other localities in the county we have obtained larvae of A. bifurcatus without difficulty throughout the year. At Epsom, large numbers of larvae of this species in the fourth instar were found early in February this year in a well-shaded permanent pool, which we have examined regularly since 1917, and adults were caught in the open in April. Larvae were numerous throughout the year, and adults, both male and female, were captured in the open as late as 22nd October. At Dorking, larvae of bifurcatus were plentiful in several natural collections of water throughout the year. One of them—the “Mill Ponds stream”—is only 100 yards from a row of houses; another—the “Stonebridge stream”—yielded bifurcaus larvae on 19th August at every place examined along a stretch of 400 yards. On the same day many larvae of this species were found, along with larvae of C. pipiens, in the rainwater barrel of a house about 200 yards from the stream.

This marked genus appears to be intermediate between Atheroides, Haliday, and Sipha, Passerini.

Myiasis has been defined by Austen as follows:—“There remains yet a third category of flies, chiefly belonging to the great Family Muscidae, the larval stage of which is sometimes actually passed in the living human body, the presence of the larvae in the various organs and tissues, and the disorders or destruction of tissue caused thereby, being comprehensively known as Myiasis.” It will be noted that this definition only refers to the larval stages of flies, but as the eggs, and in one case at least, pupae and adults, may be found in the human body, and as myiasis is a common condition in many animals, the definition may now be amplified as follows:— The condition or conditions, resulting from the invasion of the tissues and organs of man and other animals by all the stages of the Diptera.

The genus Locusta, L. (= Pachytylus, Fieb.) includes two of the most destructive swarming locusts of the Old World: the widely distributed L. migratoria, L. (with L. danica, L., and L. migratorioides, Rch. & Frm., as its forms; see below), and the South African L. pardalina, Walk. The literature on the economics, biology and especially on the means of control of these locusts is enormously extensive, but at the same time their systematic arrangement is in considerable confusion, and extremely contradictory opinions as to the mutual relationship of the different so-called species exist among specialists. As a direct consequence of this, the field research and control work of economic entomologists is apt to suffer through the difficulty in getting a particular species properly named, and thus it is often impossible to make a comparison of the records as to the biology and control of the same species in different countries.

The adults of the weevil, Euthyrrhinus meditabundus, Fabr., were frequently taken in the forest country to the south of Darwin, Northern Territory, and on several occasions they were bred from the branches of two species of indigenous trees and from custard apples, Poincianas and two unidentified species of introduced ornamental trees growing in the Darwin Botanic Gardens. As a rule the infestation of these trees was not heavy, although Poincianas occasionally showed considerable injury. Mango trees, which were frequently badly damaged and sometimes destroyed by termites (Mastotermes darwinensis), appeared to be immune from attack by Euthyrrhinus, even when growing in close proximity to infested trees of other kinds.