The following report is based on a tour which extended from September 1915 to February 1917, but included in it are also some observations made during a few months residence in 1914.

The area comprised lies partly in the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, and partly in Togoland (see Map, Bull. Ent. Res., V, p. 32). It extends from 8° N. to 9° 45' N. and from 0° 15' E. to 2° 30' W. My headquarters were at Yapi on the River Volta about 28 miles south-west of Tamale, the capital of the Northern Territories. I have already described in a previous report the nature of the country and the type of vegetation, so need not repeat them here. I examined the whole of the Volta from Yapi to Yeji by canoe, and then followed a sinuous route on my return journey, keeping as close to the River as possible. The country between Yapi and Daboya, a large town with an important ferry on the Volta, was traversed on several occasions. From Daboya I went to Bole and made my temporary headquarters at Larabanga, the centre of the game and Glossina submorsitans area. Here I spent several weeks under canvas in three separate localities in the bush. On my homeward journey I visited Yendi, formerly an important German post in Togoland, thence going to Salaga and Kete-Krachi, where I crossed the Volta and proceeded to join the main north road at Atabubu (Tabobo).

Llaveia abrahami, sp. nov.

Female, adult. Ovate, strongly gibbose above and flattened beneath; segmentation both on the dorsum and venter distinct. Colour, in alcohol, buff-yellow; with a thin deposit of white secretion in the hollows between the segments; legs and antennae yellowish brown. It is highly probable that much of the secretion had disappeared in the alcohol in which the specimens were preserved. Antennae of eleven segments, 2nd and 11th longest; 3rd a little shorter than the latter, but much longer than the succeeding ones, which are submoniliform in shape; average length 0·8–0·9 mm. Legs relatively short; tarsi a little more than half the length of the tibiae; front pair shortest, measuring 0·85 mm.; posterior pair longer, measuring 1–1·1 mm.; hairs relatively long and slender; claws simple, though in one example two of these organs have a well-marked tooth-like projection dorsally, just above the curved tip. Derm both dorsally and ventrally rather thickly set with very short fine hairs; margin with a narrow band of long fine hairs, the longest of which measure 0·6–0·7 mm. Pores dorso-ventrally relatively very small, circular and with beaded rims; these are less numerous than the fine hairs; those at the margins are slightly larger, much more numerous, and many have clear triangular-shaped centres. Anal segment of abdomen with three large ovate rings, the central one being slightly the largest and measuring about 0·2 mm. in its longest axis. Length, after maceration in KOH, 8–9 mm.

It has been well known since the studies of Taschenberg (1864–1872) that the larvae of Leptohylemyia coarctata, Fall., attack wheat and rye. The damage due to this fly has been observed many times in almost all European countries, and many papers have been devoted to its life-history. Of these papers the most important are those of E. Ormerod (1882–1895), S. Rostrup (1905–1911), T. Hedlund (1906- 1907), P. Marchal (1909) and finally the recent work of Kurdjumov (1914).

The opinion that trypanosomiasis of the T. pecorum type is, under favourable conditions, transmissible amongst domestic stock through the agency of blood-sucking flies other than Glossina has been expressed by several observers.

Aspidoproctus armatus, Newst.

PortugueseCongo: San Salvador; on tree of unknown species (Dr. Mercier Gamble).

Aspidoproctus ? glaber, Lind.

Nyasaland: Mlanje; on “ mwanga ” tree, x. 1913 (S. A. Neave).

A small undersized female, unfortunately imperfect. I have placed it here, as it agrees, apart from its size, with Lindinger's description.

While the Oriental and Neotropical Trypaneids have been the subject in recent times of extensive studies, those of the Ethiopian Region are still almost in the same condition in which they were left by H. Loew in his valuable paper of 1861. Only more recently Prof. Hendel has made an attempt to erect some Ethiopian genera in his general classification of the family; but all these genera are only shortly characterised by means of dichotomic tables, and most of their type-species have been given names as new species, but without any description.

Howard, Dyar and Knab in their monograph “ The Mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West Indies,” in discussing the rearing of mosquitos, emphasise the importance of larvae in specific determination. They write (Vol. I, p. 181) “ Many species of Culex are of uncertain determination without the associated larvae, while some Aëdes have identical adults, yet dissimilar larvae. The characters of the larvae reside in the modifications of the chitinous appendages of the skin and the arrangement of the hairs. As these are fully retained by the cast skins, it is possible to preserve both the larva and the adult of the same identical specimen, thus assuring absolutely correct associations.”

During the past summer (1916) Mr. C. B. Williams has, on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Trinidad, been engaged in investigating the natural enemies of Tomaspis and its allies, in the hopes of finding some effective means of controlling the froghopper, Tomaspis saccharina, Dist., which in recent years has caused considerable damage to the sugar plantations of Trinidad. With this object Mr. Williams has made collections of minute parasitic Hymenoptera in the Island and the adjacent mainland of British Guiana, and this material has from time to time been forwarded to me for study. Mr. Williams has from the first been fully alive to the importance of securing any specimens of the egg-destroying Paraphelinus, Perk., and I am glad to find species of this interesting genus in the gatherings from both Trinidad and British Guiana. The literature dealing with Paraphelinus is scattered and perhaps inaccessible to those to whom it is most likely to prove serviceable. I have therefore, in some introductory notes, recapitulated the main facts in the life-history and host attachment and added a bibliography to the present paper.

The present research was carried out in the Department of Agricultural Entomology at Manchester University, under the direction of Dr. A. D. Imms. I am greatly indebted to him both for giving me the insects upon which this research was prosecuted, and also for much help at the University, and afterwards in looking over my paper and aiding its publication.

The thrips described below has recently been a source of considerable damage to orchids grown for ornamental purposes in Trinidad, West Indies. Up to the present it has not been found on wild orchids and it is possible that it is not indigenous to this island. A large number of orchids are brought over from Venezuela and it may have been imported with them from that country.

The Imperial Bureau of Entomology has recently received from Mr. A. H. Ritchie, Government Entomologist in Jamaica, specimens of a weevil which he found to be doing serious injury to the tubers of a crop of sweet potatoes. The insect belongs to the sub-family Cryptorrhynchinae and proves to be an undescribed species of the genus Palaeopus, Fst. (Stett. Ent. Zeit., 1896, p. 51 & 60).

So much has been said about insects since the War began that it is, I think, advisable that some attempt should be made to summarise our knowledge of the more important insect-borne diseases and their vectors. While insects have long been suspected of being responsible for the transmission of serious diseases, it may be said that practically the whole of our knowledge of insects in this rôle has been acquired within the past twenty years. So rapidly, however, has the charge on this offence been made out against them that, although it is common knowledge that they have been proved guilty, it is not generally realised upon how many counts the verdict rests.

The following are some new species of Aphididae found in Africa. The majority are from the collection sent me by Mr. F. C. Willcocks, Entomologist to the Sultanic Agricultural Society of Egypt. Others have been received by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology.

Four previously described species are added, so as to keep these lists complete:—

1. Macrosiphum dahliafolii, nov. sp.

2. Aphis durantae, sp. nov.

3. Aphis zizyphi, sp. nov.

4. Aphis ficus, sp. nov.

5. Aphis tamaricis, sp. nov.

Since the publication of my previous paper on the Ethiopian fruit-flies of the genus Dacus, I have received some additional species, the descriptions of which are given in the following pages, with the purpose of completing our knowledge of this very important genus of Diptera. For the material here illustrated I am indebted to Dr. Guy A. K. Marshall, Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, and to Dr. Alberto Mochi, of Ghinda, Erythraea: to whom I have to offer my best thanks.

The hypothesis which I have previously suggested, that the limit of morsitans coincides more or less with that of the park (at least in Katanga), has just been confirmed by several new observations.. But sometimes the range of the fly terminates before the disappearance of the park. This double disappearance is generally gradual.

Between 9° and 5° S. Lat. the western limits of the park and of G. morsitans coincide roughly with the Lualaba-Lomami watershed, but most frequently they disappear a little to the east of this line, that is to say, they do not quite reach the Lomami basin.

In this region, between the Lualaba and the Lomami, the park and morsitans gradually disappear in the neighbourhood of 5·30° S. Lat., that is, a little south of Kongolo.

The Kabala-Albertville Railway is an important section of that great river and railroad route by which one can now cross the whole of equatorial Africa from Banana to Daressalaam, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, without having to walk a single step. It is therefore a railway with a great future, which deserves to be studied from all points of view, and particularly with regard to the distribution of tsetse-flies, as the region traversed by this railway was ravaged a few years ago by sleeping sickness and the railway is probably destined in part for the transport of cattle.

The specimens here dealt with were collected by Mr. A. H. Ritchie, Government Entomologist for Jamaica, and were handed to me for determination by Dr. Guy A. K. Marshall, Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology.

Wesché employed the relative length of the trumpets to the length of the thorax and the shape of the openings of the trumpets in drawing up a Key to the Pupae of West African Culicidae (Bull. Ent. Res., i, pp. 18–19). Howard, Dyar and Knab in their valuable monograph “ The Mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West Indies ” (Vol. i, pp. 102–103) state that in their experience too much has been made of the difference between the pupal trumpets of Anopheles and Culex; the variations in the shape, size, and length of the breathing trumpets between different species are numerous, they say, but “ furnish no characteristics which are diagnostic of genera or larger groups.” They consider that there are intermediate forms and that differences between species are frequently more striking than between genera themselves. They remark also that this may equally well apply to the differences in shape of the pupal paddles, admitting, however, that “ there is a striking difference between the two tribes Culicini and Sabethini ” as regards the paddles for “ In the Culicini the paddles are large, broad and rounded in outline; they are strengthened by a stout longitudinal midrib which bears a spine or seta apically.

The control of flies is a serious problem in the Egyptian Campaign. In desert camps flies develop at an extraordinary rate, unless rigid sanitary precautions are taken. In native villages they seem to be taken as a matter of course, and it is a common sight to see fruit and food of all kinds, in shops and on street-vendors' carts, swarming with flies. Small children suffering from conjunctivitis are seen in the streets with their eyes thickly covered with flies. Flies of the house-fly type (Musca) are the most troublesome, although blue-bottles (Calliphora), green-bottles (Lucilia) and Sarcophaga are found. These latter are often met with in the desert in the small clumps of palm trees known as “ hods.”

The existence in Mauritius of the Melolonthid beetle, Phytalus smithi, Arrow, was detected for the first time in July 1911 on those lands of Mon Rocher Estate which adjoin the Royal Botanical Gardens of Pamplemousses. It was at once suspected that this new pest of the sugar-cane must have been conveyed into the Colony by some shipment or other of sugar-cane cuttings from abroad, but no clue could be found as to its country of origin until February 1912, when it was detected in Barbados by Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall, Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, who was then on his way to the Agricultural Conference held at Trinidad in that year.