Adult female broadly oval, convex above. Body soft (not rigidly chitinous as in most LECANIINAE). Colour of examples preserved in alcohol, whitish to brownish ochreous; with two median longitudinal series of small depressed dark spots and transverse series of similar spots radiating from the median series to the margin. Photographs of the insect in alcohol (fig. 1) show the marginal area to be rather closely coated with white pulverulent secretion, with traces of a lamellate marginal fringe of waxy matter; in some examples there are irregular flecks of secretion on the dorsum.

The species of Leiognathus described below apparently has a very wide distribution in Africa and is also found in Mauritius, China, India and South America. It seems indeed to be the common blood-sucking Gamasid mite of poultry in these countries. As it is highly probable that this parasite transmits spirochaetosis, and perhaps other diseases of the fowl, it is desirable that further information about its distribution and life-history should be obtained. Two instances of this mite attacking man are recorded below in the list of localities.

During the past year (1914) the coconut palms in the city of Georgetown have been rather severely attacked hy the larvae of the Coconut Butterfly, Brassolis sophorae, L.

Four undescribed mites from rats are dealt with in the present note, one being a new species of Laelaps (Haemolaelaps), which has a wide distribution, occurring in Ceylon, India, Africa and South America; the three others are larval forms of TROMBIDIIDAE, and they are the first parasites of this kind to be collected in India; my best thanks are due to Dr. Nelson Annandale and Mr. F. H. Gravely for their kindness in sending me these interesting Acari. I must also thank Mr. Engel Terzi for his carefully prepared drawings of these species.

Dr. Andrew Balfour, Director of the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research, has submitted to the writer for study part of the Diptera collected on his recent voyage in the American tropics. A species of Simulium from the valley of the Atrato River in Colombia proves to be new and is described below. Through the good offices of Dr. Balfour further interesting material was received from K. S. Wise, Surgeon-General for British Guiana, and from F. W. Urich, Entomologist of Trinidad. These lots contained an additional new species of Simulium each, of which the descriptions follow. Diptera belonging to other groups and of economic interest will be treated in subsequent papers.

Since my previous report on the Chalcidoid parasites of Glossina appeared (Bull.Ent. Res., vi, pt. 1, p. 69, 1915) a second important collection has been received by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology from Dr. W. A. Lamborn, their Entomologist in Nyasaland. In this materal five species are represented, of which three here described are believed to be new. The status of the remaining two, Stomatoceras micans, Wtrst., and Syntomosphyrum glossinae, Wtrst., may now be regarded as established, in the former case from its recurrence on the same host in two widely separated localities, in the latter from Dr. Lamborn's valuable notes. Six species of Chalcidoids have now been bred from puparia of Glossina spp., and all from G. morsitans.

Although it is now some eight years since Neumann described Argas brumpti from specimens collected by Dr. Brumpt in Somaliland, comparatively little is known of its biology. Dr. Brumpt found the ticks living in dust under ledges of rock in the dry bed of a stream frequented by porcupines (1). In British East Africa they havebeen taken by Mr. Scholefield on the Yatta Plains (2) and in the Anglo-EgyptianSudan they have been recorded by the writer as occurring at Gebelein (3). In 1913 Mr. Cunliffe, working in England, obtained eggs and larvae from specimens sent him from British East Africa, but failed to rear the latter (2). Figures of the adult female appear in the Monograph of the Ixodoidea by Nuttall, Warburton, Cooper and Robinson. The egg and unfed larva have been figured and described by Mr. Cunliffe in The Journal of Parasitology (2).

On initiating this investigation my first aim was to discover a small isolated fly area, such as those described as “ primary fly centres ” by Dr. Shircore (Bull. Ent. Res., v., pt. 1, p. 87), with a view to carrying out experiments in the clearing of bush and endeavouring to reduce the numbers of the fly by systematic capture on a large scale.

In the Somali country this tick is found in the soil in or around the huts on the outskirts of the coastal towns, showing a predilection for the more squalid and insanitary areas where the indigent Somalis reside. In the interior it frequents most camps of long-standing which are inhabited by human beings and their domestic animals. They are extremely common in the dusty soil surrounding the wells and waterholes. In the waterless Haud and the Nogal Valley they are most frequently found under large trees, especially when these are in isolated positions, as at Ged Aboulrir on the Arori Plain, and afford the only shade for miles to the shepherd and his flock during the heat of the day.

Adult female (as observed in specimens preserved in alcohol) broadly oval (fig. 1, b, c), strongly convex (fig. 1, a), circular under compression; divisions of segments indicated on the dorsum by moderately deep transverse furrows: marginal area tumescent, overlapping the ventral area (fig. 1, b). Colour (of alcoholic material) ochreous, brownish, or olivaceous, very thinly powdered with white mealy secretion.

In view of the possible danger of the introduction of yellow fever into the Far East the Government of Hong Kong has instituted a very thorough investigation of the mosquitos occurring in the Colony, and the Governor has recently forwarded to the Colonial Office an interim report by Dr. Harold Macfarlane, the Government Bacteriologist, to whom the work has been entrusted.

Je n'aurais pas voulu répéter ici ce que j'avais déjà écrit concernant la G. morsitans dans mes rapports précédents, mais, d'autre part, les renseignements que j'y avais donnés sont nécessaires à la clarté et à la compréhension de ce que je vais dire ici.

La Glossina brevipalpis est certainement l'espèce de glossine la plus répandue, dans certaines régions du moins, après la G. morsitans et la G. palpalis, mais elle a des moeurs si particulières que, sans les connaître, on ne peut découvrir son existence que par un simple hasard. En effet, les moeurs de la G. brevipalpis sont vespérales et, en partie, matinales, après le lever et surtout avant et après le coucher du soleil. Durant le reste de la journée la mouche est complétement inactive et se tient cachée (dans les herbes?).

In connection with investigations into the life-history, etc., of Glossina morsitans in Northern Rhodesia, special efforts have recently been made to secure parasitesof the fly. As a result, a considerable number of Chalcidoids have been bred frompuparia collected between August and December of last year at Kashitu (LI. Lloyd)and Mwengwa (R. A. F. Eminson). These interesting Hymenoptera have now beenforwarded to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology by Mr. Lloyd, Chief Entomologistin Northern Rhodesia, with the parasitised puparia and some relevant notes. Onthis material the present report is based. The collection contains three species, representing as many widely separated groups in the superfamily Chalcidoidea.Two believed to be new are described below, the types being deposited in the British Museum.

This insect, which is being described by Mr. R. Bagnall under the name of Crypto-thrips brevicollis, sp. n.. has been known to vine-growers in Cyprus for at least ten years, but was believed to be harmless, and the damage it actually effected was attri-buted to other causes, e.g., fungus, unsuitable soil, bad cultivation, or faulty methods of planting. A fortnight's study on the spot during August last convinced me that the injury from which these vines were suffering was not due to any of these causes. A careful examination of roots, leaves, branches, grapes and flowers revealed no fungoid disease. Nor was the attack due to defective soil or imperfect planting or cultivation, as the same characteristic attack was seen on the vines of the Departmental Model Vineyard at Omodhos where the soils had been most thoroughly cultivated and the vines had been carefully planted and skilfully tended. The vine owners whose vines were found thus attacked called the disease “Caraoli,” which means “curling,” a condition brought about by the action of the vine thrips.

During a recent visit to Samoa the senior author had an opportunity to collect a few COCCIDAE. No time was available to make a systematic search for these insects and the specimens collected were only such as were seen in the course of other work. As a list of these has been asked for, it seems desirable to publish the following brief notes with the descriptions of the three apparently undescribed species.

Type (female) and two other females from Kuala Lumpur (Dr. A. T. Stanton) and one female from Selangor, Malacca (H. N. Ridley, 1896), this last being in the British Museum collection.

Some form of short-period fever, apparently sandfly fever, seems to have been giving trouble in the Gallipoli area. This fact, together with the small amount of information at present available on the life-histories of the species comprising the genus Phlebotomus, has led me to publish the present note in the hope that it might be of use to medical officers by giving them easily-seen characters by which the early stages of three species may be differentiated. In collaboration with my assistant Mr. Patel, I have been engaged for some time in collecting material for a complete account of the life-histories of these species, but as the publication of this memoir must be deferred to a later date, the present article contains merely a few points which are likely to prove useful under practical conditions of working in the field, and a note on the very curious larval tail-bristles.

I have been asked by the Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology to report upon, and, if necessary, describe a thrips which has been discovered to be distinctly injurious to vines in Cyprus. Two curious species of the suborder Terebrantia have been described from vines, viz., Retithrips aegypticus, Marchal, from Egypt and Rhipiphorothrips bicolor (Bagnall) from Ceylon, and Karny and Doctor van Leeuwen Reijnvaan record the following gall-thrips of the suborder Tubulifera from vines in Java; Dolerothrips picticornis, Karny, with an inquiline (Cryptothrips pachypus, Karny) from Vitis papillosa, Gynaikothrips viticola, Karny, from V. lanceolaria anda gall (species unknown) from V. mutabilis.