Owing to the very limited time available during my stay in England, it has not seemed advisable to attempt any general account of so extensive a region as that covered by my recent journey through Tropical East Africa. This region extends practically from the Zambesi River to the Upper Nile, and is included in 12 degrees of longitude and no less than 22 parallels of latitude. It comprises all types of country from open plains to dense forests, and elevations from sealevel to 10,000 feet. This area includes, in addition to a large portion of the Eastern Tropical subregion, a small portion of the South African subregion and. in Uganda, of the Western Tropical subregion. The entomological study of so large an area involves a great variety of interesting questions and an even more bewildering diversity of insect life. The economic relations of these numerous species with man and his domestic animals present a large number of problems, in regard to many of which much additional evidence is required.

The following is a list of the more important insects collected in the Province of Mozambique (Portuguese East Africa) and which in some stage of their existence may be harmful to men or animals. During the writer's stay in Mozambique it was impossible to make a complete survey of that immense colony, but as much collecting was done as opportunity offered and this list may be considered a fairly representative one.

The mechanical conveyance of germs by flies and other insects is of importance not only to the sanitary officer, but to the agriculturist and even to the merchant, for the more the matter is enquired into, the more numerous become the cases in which the origin of fermentation or disease in plants and animals can be traced primarily to this agency. Whatever may be the significance of this question in temperate climates, it is obviously of far greater importance in the tropics, where insects are present in greater profusion throughout all seasons of the year. The subject certainly merits more attention than has yet been bestowed upon it.

It is generally admitted that the ability to determine the species of Anopheles by an examination of their larvae would place a valuable weapon in the hands of the practical sanitarian in tropical countries. In the investigation of an area for the determination of the Anopheles present, it frequently happens that, on account of their habit of concealment by day, adult mosquitos are difficult to find, whereas their breeding places may be located readily. If the larvae are transported to a distance they commonly do not develop further, and so, failing the specific identification of the larvae themselves, valuable information is lost. It is therefore very desirable to know whether, and to what extent, any of the characteristics of such larvae may safely be employed in determining their species.

The following is a report on the distribution of the tsetse-flies, Glossina palpalis, R. D., and G. morsitans, Westw., in the Lado District, through which I travelled during the first six months of 1911, together with some brief notes on their bionomics. My route and the localities in which the tsetse-flies were seen are shown approximately on the attached map, and owing to the impossibility of showing them accurately—most of the khors and villages over and through which I passed are not marked on the map—a route report is also appended. From December 30th, when I left Shambe, till March 8th, when I reached Meredi, I travelled in company with El Bimb. C. M. Drew, M.C., and from May 2nd, when I arrived at Kajo Kaji till July 2nd, when I reached Rejaf, I was with El Bimb. C. H. Stigand, Inspector of the Rejaf and southern portion of the Lado District, to whom I am indebted for much valuable assistance.

The following notes and descriptions are based on material received by the Entomological Research Committee, who have kindly presented the types of the new species to the National Collection.

Mr. A. D. Michael has already recorded* the presence of mites of the genus Tarsonemus upon diseased sugar-cane from Barbados. He states that two species belonging to this genus were present in the material sent to him, and that the larger of the two species was certainly identical with one which Mr. Bancroft found doing serious damage to sugar-cane in Queensland. Mr. Michael proposed the name Tarsonemus bancrofti for this larger species. So far as I am aware, no description of this nominal species has been published and I am obliged to rely on Mr. Bancroft's published sketches† for information concerning it. Unfortunately his drawings are not executed in sufficient detail and I am not certain that his mite is the same species as the one which is dealt with in the present note; but as the figures of the Queensland mite differ appreciably from the Barbados specimens, it seems advisable to describe the latter under another name (T. spinipes). The species of the genus Tarsonemus often resemble one another very closely in structure, and they cannot be recognised with certainty unless a fully detailed account of their principal characters, accompanied by careful drawings, is given. Dr. Bancroft gives drawings of both sexes of his mite. He does not figure any spines on the third leg of the male, but he shows a lobeshaped expansion, similar to that of T. spinipes, on the inner side of the short fourth leg. The hairs of the body are not depicted. According to his drawings, the body of the female resembles that of T. spinipes in being very long and narrow, but is apparently much narrower at the anterior end. He represents the two terminal setae of the fourth leg of the female as being both very long and slender, the outer one being seemingly almost as long as the inner. The size of T. bancrofti is not stated, nor is the scale of enlargement of the figures given.

As a general rule, on the Benue River and its tributaries, at least between Abinsi and Lau, the tsetses found are Glossina tachinoides and G. palpalis, the latter occurring far less frequently.

Roubaud has recently recorded (cf. Sleeping Sickn. Bull., I l l, p. 419) that in West Africa G. morsitans is intolerant of high temperatures, as he has found that specimens exposed to 40° C. (104° F.) died within an hour. This species is however adapted to withstand such a temperature in the Luangwa Valley; for during the hot months of October and November the shade thermometer frequently registers from 106° to 108° F., seemingly without any ill results to the tsetses.

Q.—Length (12 specimens) 9·5 to 12 mm.; width of head 3·5 to 4·4 mm.; width of front at vertex just under 0·5 to just under 0·6 mm.; length of wing 7·75 to 9·8 mm.

The types of the eight new species described in the present instalment are in the British Museum (Natural History). The following list shows at a glance the countries in which these additions to our knowledge of the blood-sucking flies of Africa have been obtained.

The genus Stygeromyia, so far as is at present known, is confined to the Ethiopian Region. The species described below, of which the type is in the British Museum (Natural History), is the third to be discovered.

♀.—Length (1 specimen) 3·5 mm.; width of head 1·4 mm.; width of front at vertex 0·6 mm.; length of wing 5 mm.

The identity of Culicoides habereri, Becker, with C. grahamii, Austen, is conclusively established as the result of a comparison of the typical series of the former with the type and para-types of the latter, which are preserved in the British Museum (Natural History). For the opportunity of making this comparison and thus proving the synonymy given above, the present writer is indebted to Dr. Kurt Lampert, of the Königl. Naturaliensammlung, Stuttgart, where the original material of C. habereri is preserved; with the most obliging courtesy Dr. Lampert not only forwarded for comparison the typical series described by Becker, but also presented three para-types of C. habereri to our National Collection.