♂. Head and thorax white; antennae black; palpi and sides of head black-brown; prothorax and sides of metathorax with tufts of long black hair slightly glossed with metallic blue, the patagia with black spots near base and black tips; pectus, legs and abdomen black-brown, the last with the dilated anal segment whitish, the rest of abdomen with tufts of long black hair on dorsum and at sides slightly glossed with metallic blue. Forewing grey, the base suffused with black-brown, the rest of wing with numerous black-brown spots which tend to become bars on terminal half below the cell and vein 4. Hindwing black-brown, with traces of deeper black-brown spots on terminal half.

In the confusion existing as to the meaning of the various Entedonine genera, I think it best to define the sense in which Pleurotropis is employed in the following pages. The essential character of the genus is, I take it, the presence on the smooth propodaeum of two central keels, which diverge apically to meet the raised posterior edge of the segment. There are also present two lateral keels, as a rule strongly developed, running (inside the oval raised spiracle) along the edge from which the descent to the pleura begins. The lateral keels join the posterior edge above a generally slightly protruding angle inside the insertion of the metacoxae. The general shape of the propodaeum is transversely quadrate, not truncately triangular as in Entedon. The petiole, which joins the propodaeum by a distinct, though often very short, process, is pitted, quadrate or even sub-pentagonal in section. The proportion of the first abdominal tergal surface to the whole visible surface varies sexually and specifically from less than one-third to three-quarters.

Since the cessation of the work of the Luangwa Sleeping Sickness Commission in Northern Rhodesia the investigation into the bionomics of Glossina morsitans has been carried on at Ngoa, in the Mpika Division, on the high ground of the Congo-Zambezi watershed. The work included a study of the influence of various bloods on the breeding capabilities of the fly and further investigation of the breeding habits and haunts of the insect in nature. The following notes embody the results of the work during the eight months from January to August, 1913. The climatic conditions during this period are given in Table 1, the temperatures being those of the laboratory.

The mosquito fauna of Egypt appears to have received very little attention hitherto, and very few species have been recorded from this country up to the present.

The following list of species is based chiefly on the collection of the Ministry of Agriculture, and is supplemented by references to species recorded by other observers but not taken by us. The synonymy used is that proposed by Mr. F. W. Edwards in his papers:—“ The African Species of Culex and allied Genera ” (Bull. Ent. Res., ii, p. 241, 1911); “ Further Notes on African Culicidae ” (Bull. Ent. Res., iv, p. 47, 1913); “ Key for determining the African Species of Anopheles ” (Bull. Ent. Res., iii, p. 241, 1912), excepting where the contrary is stated.

Mahogany trees are attacked by two caterpillars which inflict a large amount of damage every year. One of these, Heteronygmiu leucogyna, Hmp. (Lymantriidae), eats the leaves, while the other, Mussidia albipartalis, Hmp. (Pyralidae), bores under the bark, causing much deformity of young trees and the formation of corky excrescences, accompanied by the exudation of resin.

In the course of an investigation of malaria in the Lampongs, a district of South Sumatra, in the months of May and June 1914, Dr. Schüffner captured a large number of Anopheline mosquitos, among them a series of specimens of a species which he recognised as new to Sumatra.

In 1909, the writer collected egg-masses of the seroot Tabanus taeniola, P. de B., and reared some of the resulting larvae to approaching maturity, but failed to obtain the pupa. The following year he took a number of immature larvae of Tabanus ditaeniatus, Macq., and reared them to the adult stage. The various stages in the life-cycles of these two Tabanids, with the exception of the pupa of the former and the egg-mass of the latter species, were figured and described in this Bulletin. The puparium of T. taeniola and egg-masses of T. ditaeniatus which are here figured and described were obtained during the summer of 1913.

During the course of three years' estate medical work in British North Borneo, ample opportunity was found for studying the local mosquitos, and I publish the few following notes in the hope that they may be of use to other workers in Borneo.

The following descriptions are based on material submitted by various collectors to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology. The types of the new species will be deposited in the British Museum.

Colour black, with greyish brown scaling; the prothorax with a broad ill-defined darker stripe on each side; the elytra with a conspicuous white spot at the base of the suture, and an oblique whitish stripe about the middle, with vague and variable dark brown patches on each side of it.

With the increasing demand for copra all over the world for the production of coconut oil, the cultivation of coconut palms has increased enormously during the last ten years in the Solomon Islands, New Britain, Papua, Samoa, and the New Hebrides, and large areas of virgin forest have been cleared and planted on regular scientific principles. In olden times most of the nuts were collected from the native plantations, where the palms were grown under almost wild forest conditions, arid were then more hardy and did not suffer to the same extent from insect pests as do the palms planted under modern conditions. It is probable that the increased food supply, represented in the fronds of the thousands of young coconut palms planted out, has been responsible for the enormous increase of a number of indigenous leafeating beetles, which, under the conditions previously prevailing, lived upon the wild coconut and other species of palms growing in the jungle. In addition to many insect pests allied to or identical with those known in Ceylon, India, and the Malay States, we have in these Eastern islands a number of leaf-destroyers in the small flattened beetles belonging to the family Hispidae. The larvae of these beetles feed either on the upper surface, or in the tissue of the leaf under the protection of which they finally pupate, so that one can sometimes obtain the whole life-history from the egg to the perfect insect in a single palm frond. The majority of these leaf beetles, which are causing so much damage in the coconut plantations, belong to the genus Protnecoiheca, Blanchard, and from what we know of the life-history of several species that have become serious pests, it is fairly safe to assume that the habits of all the species are similar.

In preparing his first synopsis of the African species of Culex (Bull. Ent. Res., ii, pt. 3, Oct. 1911) the writer relied almost entirely upon characters of coloration for the separation of species, and had made no study of the male genital organs; at the same time it was pointed out that the group of species allied to Culex invidiosus required much additional study before their classification could be regarded as satisfactory. It is now possible to give in full the results of further study of the African species of Culex of the pipiens and invidiosus groups. It has been found that, in these groups at least, the species can most readily be separated by means of the male genitalia, and also that one or two names which had previously been sunk as synonyms must in reality stand as good species. In the present contribution figures are given of the male genital organs of eleven species; these, together with the four already illustrated (Bull. Ent. Res., iv, pt. 1, May 1913) comprise all the African Culex with the exception of (1) those with a banded proboscis; (2) those with characteristic leg markings, C. tigripes and C. tipuliformis; (3) C. pruina, which is described below; (4) C. didieri, N.L., and C. pygmaeus, N.L., which the writer is unable to recognise; and (5) those with the pale markings of the abdomen situated towards the apices of the segments. As before, all the figures have been prepared by Mr. A. J. Engel Terzi with very great care and accuracy, and I am much indebted to him for his assistance in this difficult piece of work.

All the species of scale-insects described in this paper were found at Peradeniya, Ceylon.

The British South Africa Company have recently received a report from Mr. R. A. F. Eminson, one of the three Entomologists whom they have engaged for the special study of the bionomics of Glossina morsitans in Northern Rhodesia, upon the work done by him from May to July, 1914.

As it is now generally admitted that one or more of the species of fleas occurring on the common rats, Mus rattus and Mus norvegicus, are concerned in the transmission of plague, the study of these fleas has become a matter of the highest importance in connexion with the prevention of the disease. The first point that demands elucidation at the hands of medical entomologists is the identity of the species that is or are responsible. When this point has been satisfactorily determined, attention can be directed to the detailed study of the bionomics of the obnoxious species, as a preliminary to the adoption of appropriate remedial measures. It will be obvious that a sine qua non to a successful attack on the problem is the ability of the investigator to discriminate the various species that he is likely to meet in his researches, and it is the object of the author of these notes to supply a key to the identification of the species of Xenopsylla that occur on rats in India.

Very nearly allied to B. scutellaris, Bezzi (Memoirs of the Indian Museum, iii, 1913, p. 98, pl. viii, fig. 10), but differing in its smaller size, black face, differently coloured scutellum and unicolorous wings. This last character distinguishes it at once from any other Oriental species of this genus at present known.

The following systematic work was carried out in the Entomological Department of the British Museum and is based on material in the National Collection. An endeavour has been made to extend the area of the field usually covered by the systematist in his search for characters, although the author ia well aware how far short of the ideal in this matter the paper falls. The species described are:—

♀.—Nigra; thorace rufo-ferrugineo; segmentis dorsalibus primo secundoque apice bruneotestaceis, albo-fimbriatis; tertio etiam albo-fimbriato.

Several months' constant traveling in the “proclaimed area” has led the writer to conclude that it contains at least four “primary centres” which harbour tsetse-flies, situated as shown on the map as follows:

No. 1, opposite Rifu, near Patsanjoka Marsh ;

No. 2, W. & S.W. of Kuti Marsh ;

No. 3, at Nyansato near the Chitawa Marsh ; and

No. 4, along and on each side of the Lingadsi River, between Long. 38° 8′ and 34° 13′ E.