♂♀. Integument black, with brown scaling ; the pronotum with two indefinite paler stripes ; the elytra with vague paler markings which sometimes form a very ill-defined band across the middle, broadly interrupted at the suture.

Head with the forehead divided into four areas by three deep sulci, the straight median one slightly narrower than the others, which are shallow in front and much deeper behind, curving at first inwards and then transversely outwards, so as to separate the lateral areas from the vertex ; the frontal areas of approximately the same width anteriorly, the median pair broader in front than behind and continuous with the vertex, the outer pair dilated and obtusely elevated behind, not projecting over the eyes ; the surface, when denuded of scales, with numerous minute punctures and sparse larger ones ; the eyes strongly convex, deepest behind the middle. Rostrum transverse (3 : 2), almost parallel-sided, the transverse basal incision very broad and deep ; the dorsum with a low median carina which begins to fork at or a little beyond its middle, and which at the base is as high as the narrowly separated areas on each side of it ; adjoining the carina a more or less deep curved impression, and a shallow oblique furrow on each side in the basal half ; the posterior margin of the epistome not higher than the median carina. Antennae with joint 1 of the funicle twice as long as 2, 3–7 a little longer than broad, 3–5 of equal width, 6 and 7 each becoming wider. Prothorax transverse (8 : 5), very strongly rounded (almost obtusely subangulate) at the sides, widest well before the middle, and scarcely constricted near the apex ; the apical margin truncate or shallowly sinuate, the base truncate ; the dorsum very convex longitudinally, highest at the middle, coarsely and confluently foveate, and with an abbreviated low median carina ; the scales small, subcircular and closely placed ; the setae short, scale-like and recumbent.

The observations here recorded were made during the rearing of Alysia manducator, Panz., as a parasite for Australasian sheep-maggots by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, and are published by permission of the Director, Dr. G. A. K. Marshall. They form merely a supplement to the accounts of this species included in two excellent papers by G. S. Graham-Smith (1916, 1919), and one equally thorough by G. M. Altson (1920).

The present studies were carried out in North Essex during August-November, 1926. I am very much indebted to Mr. B. Golding and Miss Golding, for giving me all possible facilities for working at Street Farm, Ashen ; and to my wife for keeping the time during the heart-beat observations.

Alysia manducator is a blackish, rather stoutly-built Braconid about a quarter of an inch in length. The female lays usually one egg in a Muscid maggot of considerable size. Very little further development appears to take place until the maggot pupates, when the Alysia larva rapidly consumes it and accomplishes its own metamorphosis within a silken cocoon with which it lines the puparium. The adult Braconid emerges a few weeks later at the anterior end of the puparium ; but eggs deposited in autumn do not complete their cycle until the following year, when about a third of the imagines appear in spring and two-thirds in the following autumn (Graham-Smith). No hyperparasites are known, but Graham-Smith has recorded destructive superparasitism by Melittobia acasta, Walk. (1916, pp. 533–535), and by Mormoniella (Nasonia) brevicornis, Ashm. (1919, p. 378). Altson (1920) has shown that buried puparia are normally beyond the reach of Mormoniella, which is not adapted for burrowing.

Having recently studied a large collection of Myiodaria from the Fiji Islands, and having received, through the courtesy of Dr. P. A. Buxton, a number of species from Samoa and other South Pacific Islands, I am able to make a revision of the Calliphoridae now before me, and to describe some new forms. I have also taken into consideration the specimens from New Zealand and from Eastern Australia in my collection, as well as the forms recently described by Aldrich, Hardy, Malloch, Patton and Surcouf, together with the taxonomic changes proposed by Senior-White, Shannon and Townsend.

It seems that some species, probably those more closely associated with man, are widely spread through the Pacific Islands ; while several others seem to be very localised.

(1) D. albipictus, known as the winter or moose tick, is a common parasite of moose, elk and deer in the forests of northern Saskatchewan. As in the outbreak described in this paper, it may attack and cause serious losses among the cattle and horses of settlers which are permitted to graze in the haunts frequented by its native hosts. Deaths among the moose are frequently attributed to the ravages of the tick.

(2) The eggs of D. albipictus are deposited in the ground by the engorged females, which continue to drop from the hosts throughout the winter until the beginning of May. The larvae emerge from the eggs during the late summer and probably remain dormant until such time as the period of drought passes and cooler weather arrives. Attachment to the host is achieved by the larvae in the autumn, and both the larval and nymphal moults are undertaken on one and the same host. During the summer months the hosts are free from its attacks.

(3) Infestation of cattle and horses may be prevented by their maintenance in fenced, tick-free pastures or in barns from the end of September until the beginning of May. Animals that have become infested may be treated with an arsenical dip. Dipping, however, cannot be safely accomplished after September in northern Saskatchewan because of the risk of severe chills that may be contracted by treated animals consequent on the low prevailing temperatures of the autumn months.

Tick-infested fields may be cleaned by being ploughed in the spring after all the ticks have dropped. The engorged females are buried, and even though the eggs may hatch, the larvae will find difficulty in reaching the surface in the autumn to attach themselves to a host.

The cultivation of the fig tree in Palestine has not yet attained any great or highly valuable proportions, though there are many thousands of these trees scattered over the cultivatable portions of the country, all of which yield a certain amount of annual profit. In some parts a few, small, regularly-planted collections of trees exist which can, with dignity, be termed plantations.

The fig tree in this country is of hardy growth and seldom receives much attention beyond a yearly ploughing of its surrounding soil and the removal of the crop. It is, perhaps, because of its resistance to the rigours of heat, cold and dryness which are experienced in the gamut of the country's climates, and its ability to flourish and bear a crop of profitable fruit with a minimum of expenditure on upkeep, that it is so popular with the agricultural inhabitants of Palestine.

The fruit of this tree is either sold fresh or else marketed locally after a process of sun-drying, which forms a profitable industry in the hill districts and is quite capable of considerable expansion. Some eleven species of figs are grown in Palestine, four of which are excellent for drying.

The pests of this tree are not numerous and include the fig wax scale (Ceroplastes rusci, L.), the Mediterranean fruit-fly (Ceratitis capitata, Wied.), and a recently discovered Psyllid, which is confined to a comparatively small area. Of these the fig wax scale is by far the most important.

In 1925 a brief generalised account was given of the biology of Sacadodes pyralis, Dyar, a Noctuiid moth that appeared likely to prove to be a serious pest of cotton, should the cultivation of this crop be taken up on a large scale in Trinidad. Previously little attention appears to have been paid to the potential danger, which the writer considers to be very real.

Sacadodes is not only very closely allied to Diparopsis castanea, Hampson, the Sudan bollworm, but it is also remarkably similar to that insect both in the general facies of all stages (Plates xxi and xxii) and in its bionomics.

In a series of notes and papers published in the last few years, the writer has attempted to apply simple mathematical methods to the study of the numerical increase of entomophagous parasites at the expense of their hosts. This work was undertaken mainly in the hope of bringing to light the general laws underlying parasitic interrelations, considered simply in their quantitative aspect. But since the publication of these papers the writer has frequently been questioned by entomologists as to the utility of the mathematical method in parasitological operations of the practical order.

Numerous experiments have been performed to study the specific effect of hydrogen ion concentration, CO2 and oxygen content of water on may-fly larvae, which warrant the following conclusions :—

1. While hydrogen ion concentration is a factor of great significance, the carbon dioxide pressure is of greater importance and should afford a very reliable index of the suitability of water as a habitat for true aquatic insects.

2. May-fly larvae, and presumably other insects as well, can stand a very low concentration of oxygen, below 1·0 cc. per litre. In view of the fact that in nature oxygen content seldom goes down to such a low figure, insects should not, as a rule, die of lack of oxygen.

Very small, shining black, evenly, but rather sparsely covered with very regular, equally long, pale, short, depressed hairs.

Head very strongly deflexed, including the eyes more than three times as broad as long, seen from above, but actually only a little more than one and a third times as broad as long seen in full face ; seen from the side (fig. 2, a) shorter than height at base ; frons and vertex moderately convexly arched, the vertex between the eyes about twice as wide as the diameter of one of the eyes (which are feebly prominent) ; basal margin of vertex between the eyes distinctly carinate, and slightly overlapping the anterior margin of pronotum ; clypeus flat, not at all prominent, and obscurely delimited from the frons ; rostrum extending to the hind coxae, the basal joint incrassate and reaching the base of the front coxae ; antennae moderately short, inserted close to the front margin of the eyes at about two-thirds of the distance from the base of the eye to its anterior apex, first joint slightly incrassate, cylindrical, extending to the apex of the clypeus, second joint incrassate more or less fusiform, the apex much thicker than the base, about three and a half times as long as the first joint, the third and fourth sub-equal, slightly thinner than, and about twice as long as, the first joint.

During the carrying out of field work in connection with the investigation of plague in the Union of South Africa, certain fleas which appeared to be new were taken in the nests of water rats and on a golden rock mouse in the Karroo.

Whilst resembling Chiastopsylla, Rosthsch., morphologically, the fleas from the Karroo rats differ from that genus in the absence of tooth-like spines at the genal margin of the head, and the flea taken on the rock mouse differs in possessing no pronotal comb, in addition to the absence of spines at the genal margin of the head. It was thought that these differences would require the erection of new genera for the reception of these fleas ; two specimens, however, of one of the species showed an incomplete set of genal spines, and Dr. Jordan, who kindly examined the material, considers that all the fleas described below belong to the genus Chiastopsylla. Apparently, if one may judge from the presence of genal spines in the two specimens found, certain species of this genus have been recently evolved.

In the following paper is given a list of cotton pests of Papua and New Guinea, with some notes on distribution and behaviour. The list makes no pretensions to being complete, but might prove useful in the event of cotton-growing being extended in that region.

In August 1925, instructions were received to accompany Mr. G. Evans, C.I.E., then Director of Cotton Culture to the Queensland Government, on a tour of cotton areas potential and actual in Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea.

We sailed from Brisbane on 13th August and returned on 30th October. Of the short time at our disposal some 40 odd days were spent at sea. In consequence, the time available for collecting entomological material was not as much as might have been desired.

1.—Encarsia formosa, Gahan, is a Chalcid wasp that parasitises the white-fly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, Westw., a single female ovipositing in 50 or more young pupae of the host. The larvae of the parasite, on hatching from the egg, destroys the white-fly pupa, the skin of which becomes black in colour, thus distinguishing the parasitised pupa from the normal white scales and pupa of the white-fly.

2.—The parasite is parthenogenetic, males, probably impotent, only appearing when temperatures are low.

3.—The life-history of the parasite occupies at least 28 days, and adults may remain in the scales for some time before cutting their way out by a circular hole in the roof of the scale. The adult is capable of travelling over large areas in glasshouses.

4.—Low temperatures militate seriously against the increase of the parasite, which is probably a tropical insect and has possibly been imported into this country from India.

5.—Fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas, as practised commercially for the control of white-fly, does not affect the parasites.

6.—The parasite is best distributed by detaching the black pupae of white-fly from the foliage, though 20 per cent, may be injured in this way. An almost complete emergence is obtained by cutting branches from plants and pinning them to the plants in houses where distribution is desired, but this involves risk of infecting the houses with various pests and diseases.

Euphorus sahlbergellae, sp. n.

Head, thorax, and abdomen deep black, polished and shining ; scape, flagellum (except about 17 apical joints which are darker), palpi, tegulae, all trochanters, front femora, about apical third of mid femora, hind femora at extreme apex, the 4 anterior tibiae and tarsi, basal third of hind tibiae, light red-brown ; basal two-thirds of mid femora, apical two-thirds of hind tibiae on underside, and hind tarsi, dark red-brown ; hind femora and apical two-thirds of upper surface of hind tibiae black to dark red-black ; hind coxae, and mid coxae mostly, black ; front coxae, at least at the sides, black, apically somewhat red-brown ; claws dark ; stigma and most wing-veins brown.

It has just lately been reported to the writer that Syringopais (Nochelodes) temperatella, Led., a Microlepidopteron of the family Oecophoridae, has again in Cyprus begun to assume the rôle of a major pest. Little work seems to have been done on this insect anywhere, so that it may be worth while to give a few notes on one or two interesting points that have lately been brought to light with regard to it.

On first appointment to the island, in 1923, the writer was given to understand that Nochelodes temperatella was the greatest insect pest with which the impoverished and struggling farmer had to deal ; but that this is indeed the whole truth was not entirely borne out by enquiries during the years 1924, 1925, and early 1926, for it was found that no serious endeavour to deal with the insect on the lines previously advocated by the Agricultural Department had ever been made, despite the fact that cultural methods only had been advocated, and in addition such as could easily have been carried out with the exercise of no great energy.

Broadly, the life-history of the insect is as follows :—The adults are on the wing in the late spring or early summer, some little time before the wheat is cut. It is supposed that the eggs are laid in the soil—certainly they are to be found in the soil—and that they there persist through the hot weather, hatching some time during the winter, and the larvae immediately proceeding to attack the young wheat. The pest becomes really noticeable only towards the spring, when sometimes whole areas of wheat are virtually destroyed. Pupation takes place in the soil.

So far no species of this family of Diptera have been described or recorded from the Samoan Islands. The acquisition of a species of Tabanus by Dr. P. A. Buxton and Mr. G. H. E. Hopkins is therefore of great interest.

The Tabanidae of the Pacific Islands undoubtedly form an eastward extension of the family from Papua through Melanesia to Fiji ; various species are known from the Solomons, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Loyalties and Fiji, but the family is unrecorded from Tonga or islands to the eastward of Samoa. The Tabanidae thus represent a Papuo-Melanesian element in the Polynesian fauna. It might be mentioned here that two species of Tabanus, T. sidneyensis and T. nigriventris, were described by Macquart from “ Sidney Island,” which has been supposed to be Sidney Island in the Phoenix group. This locality is certainly erroneous ; most of the Diptera described as coming from there are known now to be common Australian forms and these two species are in all probability also Australian. The only other species recorded from Polynesia proper is T. insularis, Walker, described from the Sandwich Islands ; this record is also certainly wrong, since the group is not known to occur in these islands, of which the fauna has been extensively collected.