Although, among the very numerous species of Diptera described by the late Dr. Hermann Loew, the types of not a few are stated to have been obtained in Asia Minor, nothing whatever relating directly to the Diptera of the dardanelles has hitherto appeared in print. A paper by Loew on a collection of Diptera made near Varna* is, however, worth bearing in mind in connection with any future work on the Dipterous fauna of the Dardanelles. The paper in question includes records of seven species of Tabanidae, some of which are among those mentioned in the following pages.

The purpose of this paper is to present the more important features of the internal anatomy of a subterranean viviparous mealy-bug commonly found on the roots of clover in the eastern part of the United States. Only the female was studied, since the male has never been found. No attempt was made to present many of the details which were found to resemble homologous parts of the common oviparous mealy-bug, Pseudococcus citri, Risso, as described by Berlese in 1893.

Since the appearance in the pages of this Journal in 1923 of the monograph above alluded to,* there has come to the attention of the author certain nomenclatorial changes, errors, additions and criticisms which seem to justify treatment in a supplementary fashion.

Described from two females bred from larvae by Lieut. K.A. Aarstad, at Kalabahi, Isle of Alor, Lesser Sunda Islands, Dutch East Indies.

Experiments are reported on the effect of salinity on Anopheles larvae. It is shown that A. elutus, A. superpictus and A. sergenti show a decided selective capacity for egg-laying, depositing more than 75 per cent, of their layings in fresh water or water of low saline content. It is also shown that salt concentrations of M/4 and higher are toxic to these eggs and larvae. In so far as reaction is concerned a slightly acid reaction (pH 6·6 to 6·8) favours more active development, although larvae will develop in alkaline solutions. The reaction of the medium also seems to modify the effect of the salinity. In an alkaline substrate M/8 salt solution is more favourable than lower salt concentrations, whereas in acid substrates the reverse seems to be the case.

The following descriptions are based upon material submitted to me by the Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology. These species from but a very small part of the material which has gone, through the continuous efforts of Dr. Marshall, towards the growth and enrichment of the National Collection of Coccidae, and I wish to record my very best thanks to him. To Mr. E. E. Green I am indebted for his unfailing courtesy, helpful comments and gifts of material from his private collection.

♀ Integument black, densely squamose dorsally; the head brown, but pale round the eyes and beneath; the prothorax brown (with a slight coppery reflection) and with an ill-defined broad sinuate pale stripe on each side, adjoined externally at the base by a very indefinite blackish patch, and another very vague pale stripe on the extreme dorsal margin, the pleurae with thinner scaling, which is blackish on the upper half and grey below; the elytra brown, usually more or less heavily mottled with black and grey, but interval 1 always brown with a strong coppery reflection, the extreme base of intervals 1 and 4 blackish, that of intervals 2 and 3 and 6 and 7 grey, interval 3 with a conspicuous small black-ringed whitish spot near the top of the declivity, interval 7 mainly grey, and the lateral area below it thinly clothed with black scales and scattered grey ones; the lower surface rather more thinly covered than the dorsum with grey scales having a coppery reflection.

Oil palms in parts of the oil palm belt in the Gold Coast Colony have suffered at intervals from the attacks of a leaf-mining beetle. Specimens of the adult beetle and full-grown larva were sent by Mr. W. H. Patterson, Government Entomologist to the Gold Coast, to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology in 1920. These were determined by Mr. S. Maulik as a new species of the genus Coelaenomenodera (family Hispidae) and described under the specific name elaeidis (Bull. Ent. Res., x, p. 171). This species is indigenous to the West Coast of Africa, and hitherto has not been recorded outside the Gold Coast, but no doubt occurs throughout the West Coast oil palm belt. According to Mr. Maulik, 32 species of this genus are known, of which four only are recorded from Africa, the remainder being from Madagascar.

Although Myzus cerasi is sometimes a serious pest of the cherry, and is therefore of economic importance in Great Britain, the life-history has never been completely worked out in the Eastern Hemisphere. A good deal of work has been done upon the species in America, and the life-history is recorded by W. A. Ross1 as it occurs on that continent.

During the summer of 1924 the writer was engaged in research upon the feeding habits and the structure of the mouth-parts of Diptera. Among the families of Diptera that were studied were the Empidae, and one of the most interesting members of this family is Tachydromia minuta, Meigen, since it is among the few British Diptera, other than the Asilidae, that are entirely predacious.

1. The Nzega sub-district of Tabora contains old savannah wooding (mostly Brachystegia), younger savannah wooding (in part Brachystegia, in large part Acacia) and grassy “ culture steppe,” or open settlement. There is also a large, natural, open grassy steppe, uninhabited, on the Wembere.

2. The younger wooding has grown up as the result of depopulation caused by clan and tribal warfare that pre-dated the entry of the Germans, though a little has been produced since by oppressive or unpopular chiefs.

3. The older bush is for the most part infested with G. morsitans, and the younger is in part infested, in part in course of becoming infested, by tsetses that appear to be advancing on several fronts. The largest bush area in the district as yet uninfested is that of Mwambiti, south and west of Gulube.

4. Much of the settled culture steppe being itself still very bushy, the advance of the fly to its borders would appear to constitute a serious threat, and the cattle and their owners are already beginning to be driven by G. morsitans out of culture steppe in north Makarundi and Nzega Ndogo, at a point south-east of Kiguhumo.

5. G. swynnertoni has recently passed into the sub-district from Shinyanga, is spreading, and, being particularly adapted to dry thorn-bush conditions, is probably capable of infesting all portions that are as yet uninfested, as well as all of the culture steppe excepting parts of Makarundi. G. swynnertoni is already in contact with the great thorn-bush area, Arusha to Dodoma, to the east of the Nzega sub-district, for it occupies areas in Mbulu and Mkalama.

6. The advances by G. swynnertoni and G. morsitans into the Mwambiti bush area are of somewhat special interest, for they are representative of what is happening in much of South East Africa.

7. The possibility of dealing with this situation by means of measures against the game has been carefully considered. The only effect such measures could have here would be to accelerate the advance of the fly owing to the movements of man and game that they would bring about and to divert the population from development of their country to hunting. Both these situations are already existing in East Mwanza and are proving difficult to remedy.

8. Means of producing and consolidating cleared barriers are under experimentation, but it would seem that at present the above-mentioned advance can be met, if at all, only by judiciously planned and organised late grass-burning.

9. Grass-fires in any case have for hundreds of years burned off the country. Their discontinuance, unreplaced by settlement and immediate heavy stocking with animals, leads to a vicious thicket growth that gradually suppresses all pasture, continues to harbour tsetse and is clearable only at the greatest expense. As, then, burning does and must take place, surely it is far better that in tsetse areas (not in cattle-areas) the fires should be organised in such a way that they will damage the fly and in a limited number of years replace the patchy, scanty humus of the thickets with well-distributed manure resulting from the grazing of cattle, than that the present indiscriminate and harmful system of burning should be allowed to continue.

10. The administrative difficulty is a very real one. A man who is over-busy in other directions, or easily imposed on, can never enforce the postponement of burning. Someone should, if possible, be in special charge during the critical months and be aided by legislation, energetic native guards and the co-operation of the headmen.

11. Postponement of burning was effected last year on these lines in nearly the whole Mwambiti-Mwansimba area with success. This area comprises both the advance by G. swynnertoni and two of the three most threatening advances by G. morsitans. The fire, as regards its carrying out, was most successful also. It will take three or more such burnings before the probable effect on the tsetse can be clearly seen, and work on the more extensive thickets may also first be needed.

12. On the west of the area bush-clearing is necessary to hold the fly back. The natives have already carried out a first instalment of this clearing near Kiguhumo and, near “ Stoke's Camp ” and Ndambire's, made a small beginning with the splitting up of the fly-belt on the lines indicated on the map. Their efforts (Ibologelo, Nzega and North Makarundi) that are immediately threatened by G. morsitans.

13. In Nzega, as in Shinyanga, the value of using the tribal organisation was well proved. The natives still follow their chiefs and headmen as their natural leaders, and there can be no doubt that where this system has been allowed to weaken and headmen have lost their prestige, measures against the tsetse are going to be far more difficult to carry out.

14. South Makarundi offers a fine example of what can be done in the way of making culture steppe (and freedom from fly) permanent by getting the natives to dig up stumps for firewood instead of making journeys to the bush.