With the exception of a short paper published some two and a half years ago by Major Patton, which, however, deals only with Tabanidae,* little or nothing has hitherto appeared in print on the subject of Mesopotamian representatives of the two families mentioned in the title of the present contribution. It is therefore hoped that the following notes, however incomplete, may be of some slight assistance to collectors of blood-sucking flies who may be stationed in Mesopotamia, and may at the same time stimulate them to further efforts.

The Imperial Bureau of Entomology has recently received from Fiji two examples of a Trichogrammatid bred from eggs of a Hispid, Promecotheca reichei, Baly, that mines in leaves of coconuts, and through the kindness of Dr. G. A. K. Marshall this material has been handed to me for examination. As received, the specimens (mounted in glycerine under the same cover glass) were too shrivelled to be studied satisfactorily. After some colour notes had been made, the wings of each specimen were detached and mounted. The bodies were then thoroughly potashed (10 per cent.) and transferred to glacial acetic in which, owing to their original pallor, they practically disappeared. They were accordingly stained for one minute with carbol fuchsin (Grübler), washed again in acetic acid, and gradually brought up to pure clove oil in which the dissection of one example was completed. Although it is unfortunately still no easy matter to determine the genera of the Trichogrammatidae, I have no hesitation in assigning the insects under discussion to Chaetostricha, Walker, in interpreting which I agree with Dr. Kryger's views in his paper on “ The European Trichogramminae ” (Entomologiske Meddelelser, xii, pp. 303–305, 1918). The ring joint in this genus is solid, but in both examples examined the funicular joint at the extreme base shows a clear, nearly complete, weakly chitinised ring, which must give additional flexibility to the antenna at this point.

In this paper short descriptions of several new species of the genus Finlaya, Theo., are given, together with a note on Finlaya assamensis (Theo.). These will be dealt with more fully in another paper which is now in preparation, and which will include synoptic tables, photographs, and drawings of the male hypopygia, as far as possible, of all the species of this genus found in India up to the present; this paper will be published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research as soon as possible. Through the kindness of Dr. N. Annandale I have been able to examine a number of type specimens in the Indian Museum collection, and to obtain the loan of a few, of which photographs have been prepared.

The present notes are a short account of work of a preliminary nature on the Coast of Kenya Colony, mostly between August 1920 and February 1921, at the end of a tour of service, and may serve to indicate some of the chief points calling for investigation. They are concerned with the life-history of the insect and with some field observations. The life-history work was carried out in tents shaded by a large mango tree, on land kindly lent by Sheik Ali bin Salim, on the north side of Mombasa Island. The field work was done on the island and on the neighbouring mainland. For records of the numbers of beetles captured on European plantations I am indebted to three gentlemen owning or managing them.

For many years I have collected and bred the Indian Calliphorinae, and recently contributed a number of papers describing the common species. In the first of these, which appeared in a recent number of the Indian Journal of Medical Research (viii, no. 1, July 1920), I described in some detail the egg, larva, puparium and adults of Chrysomyia bezziana, Villeneuve, the Old World screw-worm fly, and pointed out that this species is a specific myiasis-producing Calliphorine, only breeding in living tissues, and that its larvae may be found in all forms of cutaneous, subcutaneous, nasal, oral, aural and vaginal myiasis in man and animals. In the succeeding papers I described the larvae, puparia and adults of the other common species, two of which, Chrysomyia megacephala and Lucilia argyricephala, occasionally cause myiasis in animals in India. It was not possible at the time to determine the non-myiasis-producing species, and new names were given them. But recently, when studying the species of Musca in the National Collection at the British Museum, I was able to examine Walker's types and am now in a position to give these Indian species their correct names. At the same time I have examined all the Calliphorine material in the National Collection from other parts of the world, as well as many specimens in my own collection, and I propose in this and in succeeding notes to collect together all the results of my studies with a view to revising later the species of blow-flies. Here again I am deeply indebted to Major E. E. Austen, D.S.O., for the valuable help he has given me in this work.

When studying the bionomics of certain species of the Ceratopogoninae in the Gold Coast, samples of material collected from different sources, where it seemed likely that the early stages of these small insects might be passed, were brought to the laboratory for examination. The samples were chiefly taken from rot-holes in live trees, from cut bamboo stumps, from decaying logs, from old canoes, from the edges of pools and puddles, from crab-holes, and from the bases of banana plants.

In this paper are described the early stages of a few more West African mosquitos. All the specimens were collected in the Gold Coast, and most of them at Accra or in the neighbourhood of that town. In drawing up descriptions of larvae we have followed the usual plan, but in the case of the setae on the head have given, when necessary, the terms employed by W. D. Lang in his admirable handbook of British Mosquitos. In drawing up descriptions of pupae we have used the terms (and lettering) suggested by one of us in his account of the chaetotaxy of the pupa of Stegomyia fasciata (Aëdes argenteus).* We have once more to express our indebtedness to Dr. G. A. K. Marshall, of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, and to Mr. F. W. Edwards, of the British Museum, for help and advice and for the identification of species, and to Mr. A. J. Engel Terzi for his skilful execution of the figures.

In previous papers (1917,1921) accounts have been given of four species of the genus Bibio, and the present paper deals with two species of the genus Dilophus, viz., D. febrilis, L., and D. albipennis, Mg. They are the commonest species of Dilophus in Britain, and both frequently occur in great numbers.

When carrying out an investigation into the mosquitos of New Zealand, * the writer found that a very common species bred in saline and semi-saline pools above high water mark along the rocky parts of the North Island coast line. For some time it was considered that this mosquito was unrecorded, but it appears that Hutton described it as a Tipulid under the name Opifex fuscus.† This was pointed out to me both by Mr. G. V. Hudson, of Wellington, who is in possession of Hutton’s Tipulid types and had seen the illustrations here reproduced, and later on by Mr. F. W. Edwards, of the British Museum, who published a short account of the insect from material recently sent to him by Mr. Hudson.‡

Through the kindness of my friend Dr. James Waterston, the Authorities of the British Museum have sent me for examination a certain number of preparations containing some fig insects from various parts of the world. One of the species in this material, Otitesella digitata, Westw., has already been studied and figured by me in a recent paper;* some of the others are dealt with below.

In an investigation of the insect fauna of the soil, the obtaining of the insects from this medium has hitherto been a very laborious and tedious process. It has necessitated the crumbling of the soil by hand, and the examination of it in small quantities at a time over sheets of paper. This method is naturally a lengthy one, and in order to facilitate it the apparatus which is now described was designed.

In 1913 Major Austen asked me whether it would not be possible to reproduce artificially the conditions which tempt the female Glossina palpalis to deposit its larvae (Report of Departmental Committee of Colonial Office on Sleeping Sickness, June 1914. Questions 1420, 1421) I replied that I thought it would, and early in 1914, on my return to Uganda, commenced a preliminary experiment to test the possibility of reducing the numbers of palpalis by providing highly attractive artificial shelters under which larvae would be deposited in numbers, and where the pupae could be collected easily and regularly destroyed. These preliminary investigations were described in my Fifth Report on the bionomics of palpalis published in the Reports of the Royal Society's Sleeping Sickness Commission (No. xvii), and it was claimed that these results were sufficiently promising to make the method worth attention and further experimental trial. Before I went on long leave in 1919 I had arranged for such a trial to be carried out in my absence, but the experiment came to an end from causes beyond my control before a satisfactory result could be obtained either confirming or contradicting the claims made for the method.

Head 0·83 mm. long, shiny orange-yellow, with the clypeus and the adjoining portion of the frons shiny black. Eyes black, prominent, extending laterally beyond the anterior lateral margins of the pronotum. Rostrum brownish black, extending to, but not surpassing, the posterior coxae; lengths of the joints: first 0·53 mm., second 0·76 mm., third 0·4 mm., and fourth 0·6 mm. Antennae brownish black, the third and fourth joints somewhat paler; first joint slightly incrassated, length 0·83 mm., second 2·0 mm., third 1·83 mm., fourth 1 mm. Pronotum shiny orange-yellow, posteriorly somewhat suffered with dark brown; length in middle 1·4 mm., breadth at anterior margin 0·8 mm., at posterior margin 2·0 mm.; sides straight, posterior margin moderately convex. Scutellum shiny black, finely rugosely punctate and regularly covered with pale depressed hairs; length in the middle 1·3 mm. Corium and cuneus similar in colour and pilosity to the scutellum; membrane dark smoky brown, veins shiny black, passing the apex of the abdomen. Sternum: mesostethium and metastethium black, the metastethial orifices and the surrounding areas very pale yellow: undersides of abdomen shiny black, covered with very fine pale hairs. Legs: coaxae blackish brown; femora dirty orange-yellow, suffused at base and apex with brown; tibiae dark brown, armed with fine black spines; tarsi black, strongly pilose.

During the past twenty-five years and more the house-fly, Musca domestica, L., has received much attention from entomologists, medical men, sanitarians and other investigators, and many observations on the life-history, habits, etc., of this fly have been made by individuals in different parts of the world. As a result of the investigations carried out during this period much information has been accumulated regarding the biology of this dangerous nuisance to mankind. However, notwith-standing all these observations and the great amount of knowledge that has been gained, there are a few points that have remained more or less indefinite. One of these is concerning the oviposition of the female fly; the number of eggs deposited during her life-period and the time elapsing between depositions.

Ischiogonus syagrii, sp. n.

Female. Long, 3·75 mm. Ochraceous (brown ochre, Winsor & Newton), the eyes, antennae outwardly, tips of mandibles, ocellar space, prosternum anteriorly and a thin line on either side on the groove of the notum, a large spot anteriorly on the mesopleurae, distal tarsal segment and the sheath of the ovipositor black. More or less thinly clothed with hair.

Orthopodomyia arboricollis was described under the name of Culex arboricollis by d'Emmerez de Charmoy, from adults reared by him from larvae that were found by Sir Ronald Ross, K.C.B., F.R.S., in a tree-hole at Vacoas. Mr. d'Emmerez tells us that these adults were the only ones he has seen in his long experience in Mauritius, and the species so far is recorded from this island only. Mr. F. W. Edwards, after examination of the types in the collections at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, has recently correctly assigned the insect to the genus Orthopodomyia.

In a recent and very useful summary of our present knowledge of phytophagous Chalcids (Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., xxiv, no. 2, Feb. 1922) Mr. A. B. Gahan describes (p. 55, pl. vii, fig. 2, 2a) a new Eurytomid, Harmolita phyllostachitis (bred from Phyllostachys bambusoides in California), which is apparently the only Chalcid hitherto reared from such host-plants. I owe to the Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology the opportunity of bringing forward a second Harmolita with the same general habit, but from a widely separated region.

One of the greatest difficulties of anti-mosquito work in Palestine is that there are a series of swamps in the littoral plain, lying almost at sea level and prevented from draining into the Mediterranean by sand-dunes and sand-bars which block their outlet channels. It appears that cutting channels through the coastal dunes is a task which would have to be repeated at very frequent intervals, and until some-what large sums of money are available the pumping of these numerous swamps into the sea cannot be undertaken. There are, moreover, other rather large areas of marsh, notably Lake Huleh, Beisan marsh and the Marj Sanour, the proper drainage of which is at the moment beyond the financial resources of the country. We have therefore to rely for the moment on ameliorative measures which are admittedly not sufficiently radical. Among other things, I have begun a study of our native fish, hoping to find some small and voracious species that breeds rapidly and is able to live in waters of different degrees of salinity. The results which I have obtained are perhaps discouraging, but certainly interesting.