Investigations undertaken by the writer involved the determining and sexing of a large number of fleas daily, and it became clear that this would be a laborious process unless an apparatus could be designed which would facilitate separation and examination of the insects by making the process as automatic as possible. The technique finally used, though designed primarily for handling fleas, could be adapted for use with other insects of comparable size where examination under magnification is necessary.

Food-baited dishes were used to monitor the impact of ground-sprayed DDT (4% WP @ approx. 200 g/ha) and deltamethrin (0.05% SC @ 2.6 g/ha) for tsetse fly (Glossina spp.) control, on epigeal ants in mopane woodland in north-western Zimbabwe. Twenty species of ants were recorded at dishes baited with various types of food. Pheidole spp. and Monomorium opacum Forel (Formicidae: Myrmicinae) were predominant, both in the number of baits attended and in the number of workers present at individual baits. Season apparently had a greater effect on the composition and activity of the ground foraging ant assemblage than did either pesticide. There was a decline in the rate at which baits were found and in species richness of the ant assemblage as the dry season progressed and several species also showed changes in their ability to locate baits. There was no major pesticide induced disruption of the species richness or food finding ability of the diurnal ground foraging ant assemblage sampled. However, foraging success by Platythyrea cribrinodis (Gerstaecker) (Formicidae: Ponerinae) was reduced immediately after spraying with deltamethrin. Subtle effects of either insecticide on rarer species cannot be discounted from the results of this study.

An improved technique is described for the preparation of permanent mounts of small Arthropoda and Nematoda, using a phenol-balsam mounting medium; a method is also described for clearing live, or freshly killed, specimens in strong chloral hydrate solution. The essential feature of the mounting method is the transfer of the specimen to a slide, in a drop of phenol, to which dry, powdered balsam is added and allowed to dissolve in situ. The mount is then dried and later covered in the usual fashion.

The following mosquitos should be added to the list given in my earlier paper on this subject (Bull. Ent. Res. 28, 1937, pp. 405—407).

1. Anopheles elutus, Edwards.

The larvae are found in the same habitats as those of A. maculipennis, but seem to show a greater preference for waters near the sea-shore. A. elutus appears to be considerably rarer in Corfu than A. maculipennis, but sufficient data are not yet to hand to settle this question.

2. Anopheles plumbeus, Stephens.

Not common. I have obtained the larvae from the rot-holes of oak, elm and white poplar, but never so far from those of olive-trees. They favour deep holes containing plenty of rotting material.

3. Aëdes (Ochlerotatus) caspius, Pallas.

The larvae are sometimes present in fresh, but more frequently in slightly brackish waters. They are often gregarious with the larvae of O. detritus, Hal., but are much less abundant than the latter.

4. Aëdes (Ochlerotatus) pulchritarsis, Rondani.

The larvae live in rot-holes of oak, elm and white poplar, and are sometimes met with in considerable numbers in the same hole. They prefer holes in which the collected water has become thick and very dark amber in colour owing to the presence of decaying wood debris.

5. Orthopodomyia pulchripalpis, Rondani.

The larvae are found in the same habitats as those of O. pulchritarsis and are often gregarious with the latter. They are less plentiful, on the whole, than O. pulchritarsis and prefer somewhat clearer water.

Note.—In my paper referred to above I mentioned that Finlaya echinus, Edw., is commoner in Corfu than F. geniculatus, Oliv. This statement is due to an error of determination arising from the fact that in many of the Corfu larvae of F. geniculatus the bristles of the abdominal tufts are somewhat more developed than those described in some text-books.

In the course of a search for parasites of Cercopidae in Central America, made on behalf of the Government of Trinidad in 1916 and 1917, I came across a froghopper of the genus Clastoptera destroying the flowers of cacao in various localities in Panama and just over the border in Costa Rica.

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.

The family of the Trypetidæ is of great economic importance, for among its numerous genera are to be found many pests of the orchard and farm. The flies of this family are rarely brought to the notice of Europeans in West Africa, for there farming operations are entirely in the hands of the native population and the amount of damage done by these insects is perhaps insufficiently appreciated by Europeans; but from observations made in my own gardens, during a long West African experience, I believe the loss caused by their attacks must be considerable. The flies which are responsible for the damage observed belong to two genera—Ceratitis, MacLeay, and Dacus, Fabricius.

All the leaf-feeding sawflies on Larix in Britain belong to the Nematine Tenthredinidae. Up till a few years ago, the most notorious recorded in this country was Pristiphora erichsonii (Hartig), though local attack of P. wesmaeli (Tischbein) and P. laricis (Hartig) have also occured. These are also the chief Tenthredinid enemies of larch on the European continent, where the genus Anoplonyx has apparently never occured in sufficiently large numbers to cause economic damage. In Britain, where larch is not a native tree, the sawflies attacking its leaves are all restricted to it and so must have been introduced into the country.

Light-trap catches of Dysdercus bimaculatus Stål and weekly phenological records of its host-plants over a period of three years on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, are discussed in relation to a year-long study of population growth at selected plants. Population build-up of D. bimaculatus occurred on a sequence of seed crops from wild host-plants in the dry season. Each year, the largest number of bugs caught in the light-trap occurred after a drop in vapour pressure deficit marked the end of the dry season. Thus, the population appears ‘poised’ to attack cotton crops maturing in the late wet season. A stepwise linear regression indicated that each year, the variance in size of Pseudobombax septinatum crops (maturing at the end of the dry season) explained the largest proportion of variance in the light-trap capture of D. bimaculatus. However, estimates from the field study indicated that Ceiba pentandra crops were more important than P. septinatum in building up numbers of adult cotton stainers. The discrepancy between the field study and the longterm phonological monitoring survey would be resolved if D. bimaculatus adults experience a dispersal flight at the end of the dry season. This flight would enable the insect to locate better-quality seed crops in drier habitats that mature in the late wet season, such as Sterculia apetala or cotton. Light-trap captures at the end of the dry season in areas such as Barro Colorado Island where Ceiba and Pseudobombax occur, could be an index to the intensity of attack on cotton crops in nearby drier areas.

Head black with pale scales; palpi black; proboscis black. Thorax and scutellum purplish brown. Abdomen black, with curved apical bands on the second, third, fourth and fifth segments and with lateral apical spots on the fifth, sixth and seventh segments. Legs black, unbanded.

A collection of Indian Tachinid flies was received some time ago through the kindness of Dr. A. D. Imms. An examination has shown that most of the specimens are new, and these are described forthwith. In the use of genera a conservative course has been adopted, and the new species have been placed for the time being at least in genera already in use.

The type specimens have been deposited for the present in the National Collection of Insects maintained by the Entomological Branch of the Department of Agriculture at Ottawa.

In a recent number of this Bulletin, Lloyd and Johnson (1) attempted to describe and illustrate all the known types of flagellate infections encountered in Glossina. Since this account was written a flagellate, which it is believed has not previously been described, has been encountered in three individuals of G. morsitans at Sherifuri, Northern Nigeria. In the first two cases the worker at the microscope was new to the infections of tsetse and did not notice anything peculiar about the parasite in the proboscides that were being examined. The appearance of the parasites in the stained film caused one slide to be retained with a note, but it was at that time regarded as an aberrant T. vivax infection. In the second instance T. vivax was present, and the unusual forms accompanying it were remarked upon, but unfortunately the slide was not retained. In the third instance it was noticed in the fresh preparation that none of the parasites were fixed to the labrum, as are the vast majority of those in T. vivax infections, nor were they clumped as in this species and in T. congolense. Each individual was free-swimming and many were escaping from the labial cavity, the power of translatory movement being great. The hypo-pharynx was not invaded. The remainder of the fly was then examined and the mid gut was found to be heavily infected, while the salivary glands were negative.

There has been much confusion in the taxonomy of the species of Dysdercus in the Caribbean area, and this contribution is an attempt to straighten out the nomenclature and synonymy for future workers on these important pests, until such time as a complete revision of the Neotropical Dysdercus can be attempted.

The new species, described below, have been received from Mr. R. Dupont, Superintendent of Botanic Stations in the Seychelles.

Aspidiotus (Chrysomphalus) ansei, sp. nov. (fig. 1).

Female puparium irregularly circular or broadly ovate ; flattish or moderately convex. Very pale brownish ochreous, semitransparent ; pellicles darker, central. Diameter averaging 1·45 mm.

Male puparium smaller and more distinctly ovate ; pellicle nearer one extremity. Length 1 mm.

Adult female broadly rounded in front, narrowed and bluntly pointed behind. Margins of abdominal segments moderately produced. Pygidium (fig. 1) with six well developed prominent rounded lobes, the median pair indented on each side, the two lateral lobes more conspicuously indented on the outer side. Squames. long and deeply fimbriate : two in each of the median and first lateral spaces, three in the second lateral space, and three beyond the outer lateral lobe, followed immediately by a stout marginal prominence, beyond which the margin is slightly cristate for a short distance. Spines few, small and inconspicuous. Paraphyses, four on each side, elongate, conspicuous. Anal orifice near the extremity. Circumgenital glands in four groups: upper laterals with 3 to 4 pores, lower laterals with 2 to 3. Oval dorsal pores in two series on each side. Numerous long slender ducts communicating with the dorsal and marginal pores. Length, 1 mm.

Vast populations of Meligethes heteropus Gerstaecker have recently been found on millet in Nigeria. The damage they cause is described and the previously unknown male is described and figured. The validity of characters previously used in the diagnosis of Meligethes is discussed.