The following observations on cotton stainers were made in the Eastern Group of the West Indies, or Lesser Antilles, which extend from Trinidad to the Virgin Islands. Some idea of their size and geographical relationships will be obtained from fig. 1.

♂. Expanse 8–9 (Fw. 4·5)mm. Head rather small, rounded, rather rough-scaled; whitish, irrorated with large blackish scales: viewed frontally, rather broad, eyes small but projecting slightly, space between eyes rather more than twice diameter of one eye as seen from this aspect: mouth-parts aborted, represented only by a small projecting tuft of hairs edged beneath with whitish. Antenna under half: scape short, stout, beneath with pecten of short stout bristly hairs: shaft bifid at apex, bipectinate, with 13 pairs of very long, finely-ciliated branches, each of even breadth but very slightly incrassate and spatulate at its tip; shaft white-scaled, spotted with black above point of emission of each branch; branches white, spotted with blackish and pale brown, black-brown at tips. Thorax blackish with long hair-scales. Abdomen short, not reaching tornus of hindwing, blackish, posterior margins of segments narrowly white; anal tuft small, white. Legs fuscous, tarsi lined white: foreleg without epiphysis: tibiae without spurs but with slight apical spines.

From January to July 1938, experiments with Anopheles maculipennis race atroparvus, Van Thiel, were undertaken to discover whether humidity and the age at which the females fed influenced their longevity. It was found that they lived longer at higher than at lower humidities; that most of the females which fed did so in the first three days; that those which fed on the second day after emergence lived longer than those which fed at other ages; and that the feeding period was slightly extended in the later experiments, though only a small proportion lived long enough to take their first blood meals on the fourth and fifth days.

Rather more than 50 per cent. of each batch of newly emerged adults were females.

A large proportion of the deaths of unfed males and females occurred during the first three days, most of them on the second day; this mortality decreased in successive experiments.

Culex fatigans, Wied., behaved similarly.

The first Phlebotomus of the year 1936 observed in Corfu, Ionian Islands, Greece, was seen on 15th June. From that date these Diptera became rapidly more numerous (maximum towards the end of June and beginning of July) and disappeared fairly suddenly in the second half of September, not one being seen after the 21st of that month.

The Lygaeid bug described below has been well known as a pest of strawberries in Tasmania for a long time, both Thompson (1895) and Lea (1908) having given particulars of its activities under the name of the “Strawberry Bug.” Lea mentions that it also occurs in Victoria and New South Wales, but as it belongs to cosmopolitan genus with a world-wide distribution, it is possible that the Tasmanian species is distinct.

The Ephialtes which have been bred from the codling moth, Cydia pomonella, L., have usually been determined as Ephialtes (Calliephialtes) extensor, Taschenberg 1863. Two species have been confused under this name, and neither of them is E. extensor, which, from the description and from material examined in the Brauns and Thomson collections, is a synonym of Ephialtes punctulata, Ratzeburg (═Pimpla punctulata, Ratz. 1844) (syn. nov.). The type of the latter species has been examined, as have the types of Ephialtes caudata, Ratzeburg 1848, and E. crassiseta, Thomson 1877, which are the two species that were actually bred from the codling moth. These species may be readily distinguished by the relative lengths of the segments of the hind tarsi and also in the female by the form of the ovipositor. The following key distinguishes the three species mentioned above.

1. The thermal constant and the zero of the velocity curve have been determined for each of the pre-adult stages of Tortrix postvittana, Walk. The experimental methods are described. The thermal constant for the eggs is 153 day degrees C. and the zero of the velocity curve 4·80°C. The corresponding constants for the larvae are 469 day degrees C. and 8·05°C, and for the pupae 182 day degrees C. and 5·93°C.

2. The experimentally determined constants and the mean monthly temperatures have been used to calculate the peak of the flight period of the adult moths at Huonville, Tasmania, during the 1935, 1936 and 1937 seasons. In three cases out of four the calculated dates approximate very closely to the observed dates for the peak of the flight period.

3. The results of observations on the number, duration and head-widths of the larval instars are given. The majority of larvae fed on young apple leaves had four instars. A greater proportion of the larvae fed on mature apple leaves had more than four instars. The length of larval life at 25°C. is significantly longer for both male and female larvae when they are fed on mature leaves. The head width of the final instar of four-instar female larvae is significantly greater than that of the final instar of four-instar male larvae. Food quality has no apparent influence on the head width of the final instar of either male or female larvae.

4. At 25°C. the length of larval life of female larvae is significantly longer than that of male larvae when both are fed on the same food ; the same tendency is exhibited at other temperatures. The separate velocity curves for male and female larvae are not significantly different in slope. The difference between velocity values for male and female larvae at the mean temperature approaches significance.

5. Larval mortality increases rapidly at temperatures above 30°C. and 100 per cent, mortality occurs at 35°C. Starved larvae at low temperatures and high humidities show a tendency for the survival time to increase with the size of the larvae. Final instar larvae under these conditions can survive for two and a half months.

Methods for the quantitative survey of the incidence of Heliothis armigera have been in continuous operation in the Barberton area of the Eastern Transvaal from 1929 to the present; since 1933 the Survey was operated similarly in Swaziland and Northern Natal.

It was accepted early that the bollworm situation in cotton, which primarily it was desired to ameliorate, depends largely upon the influences exerted by other food-crops of the insect grown prior to and in association with cotton, and the investigations were instituted with a view to acquiring the fullest information on the incidence, habits and reactions of H. armigera with respect to the chain of cultivated and natural food-plant situations existing under differing climatic conditions in the course of the year.

The present paper is the first of a series communicating the results of investigations which proceed in various directions from information supplied by the Cotton Pest Survey centred upon Barberton. The paper deals with the annual course of bollworm incidence as indicated, in the first instance, by egg counts taken twice-weekly, year by year, in examples of all food-plant situations according to methods of sampling and calculation devised here.

In preparing the part dealing with the Diprionidae in a synopsis of the British sawflies I came upon several morphological characters that, if used or made more use of, would greatly facilitate the naming and classification of this economically important group of insects. A comparison between Neodiprion and Diprion (s.l.) revealed at once striking differences in the shape of the meso-scutellum, the sculpture of the abdomen and the anal cell in the hindwing, characters easily visible in the field and therefore of great importance to the economic entomologist. Diprion pini, L., and similis, Hartig, were found to differ from the other Diprion species, among other things, in their small cenchri, a character easily visible in the field, and the genus has been divided.

The new species described herein was found, in the first instance, on cacao (Theobroma cacao, L.) at the Central Experiment Station, Serdang, Selangor, Federated Malay States. Later on, a few specimens were caught on the leaves of annatto (Bixa orellana, L.) plants situated at about two hundred yards from the area planted with cacao.

The Oyani Valley is in the South Kavirondo native reserve of Kenya Colony. The river from which the valley takes its name rises in the Kilgorris groups of hills in and near the south-west corner of the Masai Reserve. The Oyani enters South Kavirondo at a point about 1°0' South by 30°35' East; it flows in a general north-westerly direction through the Kanyamkago location and joins the Kuja River about eighteen miles above the junction of the Kuja and the Gori Rivers.

♂♀. Derm piceous, with very variable grey and brown scales, not forming any definite pattern, usually the brown scales predominating, but sometimes the grey; the scales on the elytra broader and longer than usual, fairly dense but not entirely concealing the derm.

The increase of air transport and the potential dangers therefrom, together with the related problems are investigated.

The introduction of a malarial vector from one faunal region to another, and the effects thereof are discussed.

The literature of the epidemiology of yellow fever, particularly the work done on the insect vectors and the susceptible animals is reviewed, and the implications thereof in connexion with air transport are considered.

The air communications of the world are shown as a map; maps of Africa and South America showing the air routes and yellow fever areas are presented.

The control of air ports and aerodromes is discussed, in connexion with which the literature on the flight-range of insects, the dissemination of insects by wind, and insects and the upper air is reviewed.

A comparison is made between the insects collected from the terrestrial zone of the atmosphere and those from the upper air.

The work done upon insects found in aircraft is reviewed, and the results incorporated together with those from Khartoum in a “World List” table. The work done in Khartoum is described, and this, together with other workers' results, is analysed.

A comparison is made between insects found in the terrestrial zone, the upper air or “Plankton zone” and those found in aircraft.

The medical, veterinary and agricultural aspect of insects found in aircraft is discussed.

The control of insects in aircraft is considered and suggestions made for future research.