The fourth stage larvae of A. superpictus, sergenti, funestus and aconitus are discussed. A. superpictus may be at once separated from the others by the absence of float-hairs, or rudiments of float-hairs, from the metathorax and first abdominal segment; also by the small extent of the dark markings on the head, and the narrowness of the dorsal plates of the abdomen. A. sergenti differs from A.aconitus and funestus (of which Edwards has suggested that it might be regarded as a variety) principally in the abdominal plates. A. aconitus and A. funestus differ from one another in details connected with the inner anterior clypeal (i.a.) pre-antennal (pr.a.) and vertical (v.) hairs, and in the shape of the abdominal plates, but they are evidently closely related, if larval anatomy is any evidence of relationship.

The following paper is based upon material received by the British Museum (Natural History) since the publication of the author’s “Further Notes on the Tabanidae of Palestine”* All the specimens referred to, including the types of the two new species described in the following pages, have been presented to the National Collection by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology. With the exception of the type of the new Tabanus (see p. 428) and a few other specimens, all taken by Mr. O. Theodor, the entire series has been collected by Dr. P. A. Buxton, to whose contribution in the last number of this Bulletin† the reader is referred for important field-notes.

In October 1921, when banding fruit trees for Anthonomus pomorum, L., numbers of larvae of Boriomyia nervosa, Fab., were found spinning up in the bands. The numbers were such as to attract attention, and afforded an excellent opportunity for working out the life-history.

The cocoons were rather coarsely made, very loose, and in the mesh could be seen numerous oil-like globules. The larvae lay in a characteristic curved position in the cocoons with the head bent forward until it rested on the underside of the thoracic segments, the legs being slightly folded inwards. They remained quiescent in the cocoons until the spring of 1922, when many specimens pupated in March.

The question of the proper allocation of the subgeneric names introduced by Walker (Insect. Saund. Dipt, i, 1850) for the division of the genus Pangonia, Latr., appears never to have been entirely or satisfactorily settled.

In his work Walker subdivided Pangonia into 15 subgenera, for which he proposed the names Nuceria, Fidena, Dicrania, Melpia, Scaptia, Pangonia, Tacina, Phara, Clanis, Osca, Philoliche, Scione, Plinthina, Scarphia and Lilaea. Three of these names (Dicrania, Pangonia, and Philoliche) were, however, adopted from previous authors. Three of the names (Dicrania, Pangonia, and Scione) have been utilized since that date, though in the case of Dicrania the name of the genus has recently been altered to Elaphella, while Walker used the name Pangonia for a group of the genus (sens, lat.) in which the type species was not included.

The discovery of a species of Phlebotomus in Australia is of considerable interest in view of the fact that the genus contains several exotic species known to be the vectors of specific fevers in man (verruga, pappataci fever, etc.).

The material, upon which these observations were made is contained in the collection of the “Centraal Militair Geneeskundig Laboratorium” in Weltevreden (Java). To complete my observations many specimens in the collection of the British Museum were studied and compared.

The Tsetse Investigation in N. Nigeria is being carried out under the auspices of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, the expense being met by the Nigerian Government. The work was commenced by the present Investigators in 1921 and their Report dealing with the first year's work was published in the Bulletin of Entomological Research (xiii, p. 373, April 1923). This paper deals more fully with the trypanosome infection of tsetses in Nigeria and describes a method of estimating this with rapidity.

The following notes are based, chiefly, on a collection of Coccidae, gathered by Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell and Mr. A. C. de Noronha during the winter of 1920–21.

When engaged on some entomological research in the extreme north of New Zealand, Mr. J. G. Myers, of the Biological Laboratory, Wellington, was attacked by a large number of small biting flies, specimens of which he was kind enough to send me for study. I am much obliged to him for having thus given me the opportunity of making known a new biting species of Ceratopogoninae, and I have much pleasure in dedicating it to him.

During the course of plague investigations carried out in Kenya Colony in 1921 by the late Dr. R. Van Someren, and in Uganda during 1922 by the same collector in conjunction with Dr. C. A. Baker, some hundreds of Mallophaga and Anoplura were collected, mainly from small rodents. This material was sent to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology in two instalments, and the present paper deals only with a new species and variety represented in the first collection forwarded by Mr. T. J. Anderson, Government Entomologist, Nairobi. The rest of the collection will be dealt with later. The opportunity has been taken to add also the description of a very remarkable louse which infests an Indian tree shrew.

Vegetation is the most important factor in determining the suitability or otherwise of an area for tsetse-flies. In all cases Glossina pallidipes occurs in what is known throughout South Africa as “bush-veld,” and, as a rule, “bush-veld” is only to be found at comparatively low altitudes (Plates xxxii, xxxiii). In Zululand it occurs from a few feet above sea-level, e.g., west shore of False Bay, to approximately 1,500 ft., e.g., eastern slopes of Ubombo Range. Glossina then may be expected to exist anywhere in the hundreds of square miles covered by trees which vary from stunted “munga” (Acacia natalitia) to the tall “umhlosinga” (Acacia xanthophloea). In some places the trees have bare trunks, e.g., “mxama” (Schotia brachypetala) and “mgano” (Sclerocarya caffra), especially where the soil is sandy. Glades up to several acres in extent may also be seen. Along the banks of rivers and in the valleys, however, the bush is generally thick, there being much undergrowth, with a canopy, overhead consisting very often of “mtomboti” (Spirostachys africana) and “mkaya” (Acacia welwitschii). There are also dotted about thickets comprising several species of Celastrus and Acacia, but a common formation is that of “mqawe” (Acacia benthami), which is dense and at times impenetrable. The dominant grass in the areas that are fairly well timbered is “ubabe” (Panicum maximum), while in the more open areas “insinde” (Anthistiria imberbis) is by far the commonest grass. In Ingwavuma, Ubombo and Hlabisa (eastern) Divisions the “fly” country is level or rather undulating; while in Mahlabatini and Lower Umfolosi Magistracies it is, on the whole, very broken, there being a constant succession of stony, sparsely bushed ridges and deep tortuous wooded ravines.

In the pages which follow I record some observations which I made upon the insect pests of this extremely interesting country while I served the Palestine Government as Medical Entomologist (May 1921 to August 1923). I have divided my notes into three parts. The part which deals with Anopheles and malaria is the fullest; that which deals with some other creatures of medical and veterinary interest is incomplete, and it must not be supposed that an insect is absent or even rare because I have not found it; that which deals with the pests of crops and plants is extremely fragmentary.

In connection with the study of Anopheline pupae with Dr. P. A. Buxton, I extended my comparisons to the Culicine pupae accessible to us, in the first place to discover their differences from Anopheline pupae, and in the second to bring the Culicine pupae themselves into a system. As with the Anopheline pupae, I limited my comparisons to the trumpets and the chaetotaxy of the abdomen, especially of the last three abdominal segments.

I have recently received a tube of thrips from the Government Entomologist, Coimbatore, found to be badly damaging tea on an estate near Kotagiri (altitude 6,500 ft.), in the Nilgiri Hills, S. India.

During the past fifteen years the attention of Economic Entomologists in Central America and the West Indies has been increasingly directed to the damage done by species of the genus Brassolis to the foliage of coconut and other palms. In some of the scattered papers (q.v. Review of Applied Entomology, Series A, 1913–22) dealing with these ravages one finds references to the natural control exercised by Hymenopterous parasites. So far as I am aware the only writers to mention by name any of these enemies are C.Schrottky (1909) and G. E. Bodkin (1917), who list four species between them. Since the spring of 1920 I have examined two small collections of Hymenopterous parasites of Brassolis from Trinidad and British Guiana respectively. In each of these the same one of Schrottky's species is represented, and in all I am now able to list seven species. Two of these have not been seen by me, and two more (Brachymeria and Spilochalcis) are probably recognisable from extant descriptions. In the case of the Telenomus it is hoped that the figures given may facilitate recongnition. Though Ashmead's description of this species is very incomplete, I have forborne for the present to supplement it, since the diagnosis of these minute parasites for any particular geographical area can be attempted best in a comparative key. only the Anastatus has been fully described.

Stramineous; lightest over lateral portion of frons and clypeus, mesonotum slightly fuscous or darker stramineous. Tegmina stramineous, lightest over costal cell; apical veins and cross-veins fuscous, on the last apical M and the apical Cu veins the infuscation stretching to cross-vein, where there is an irregular dark mark; the rest of the veins of the same colour as the membrane. Wings hyaline, slightly stramineous, with darker veins.

As it appears to be a very unusual occurrence for tsetse-flies to breed in places entirely devoid of overhead shade, it is perhaps desirable to place on record two observations of this kind that I have made recently in Tanganyika Territory.