The apparatus previously used to demonstrate the repellent properties of DDT, fuel oil and methylated naphthalene auxiliary solvents towards certain Diptera was used in further studies of olfactory repellency in an attempt to narrow down the ingredients responsible for this effect, and consideration was given to the possibility of finding substitutes for them with less repellent or even attractive properties.

Light, medium and heavy fractions were obtained by fractional distillation of fuel oil and each of two methylated naphthalene auxiliary solvents. In all these spray components the repellent properties are inversely related to the boiling point, and appear to be non-specific both chemically and by insects. Tests with materials of low volatility, however, showed that the effect is not a simple broad relationship between volatility and repellency.

Butoxy-polypropylene glycol, widely used as a ‘repellent’ ingredient of livestock sprays, shows olfactory attractiveness to Musca domestica L. and Aëdes aegypti (L.). The odour of Drosophila melanogaster Mg. was shown to be attractive to the insect, regardless of sex.

It is concluded that there seems little hope of an economic non-repellent material.

It is suggested that the repellency of spray components might be counteracted by the addition of specific attractants, sex or other, to spray formulae. Alternatively, a useful space repellent spray, containing no toxicant, might be formulated from the lighter fractions of the solvent materials.

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.

Anagyrus beneficians, Compere, obtained in small numbers from shipments of other parasites from Uganda, proved to breed readily in the laboratory.

Numbers were reared, liberated and established on mealybug in coffee districts and native reserves in Kenya.

It is one of several parasites responsible for a marked reduction in the severity of the mealybug.

Head and thorax dark; abdomen pale, apparently pale green, with dark lateral spots. Antennae, cauda and cornicles dark. Legs with mid and hind femora dark, front pair paler; apices of tibiae and the tarsi dark. Antennae shorter than body, rather thick; basal segment larger and paler than second; third much longer than fourth and about as long as the sixth, with 18–20 small round pale sensoria over its whole length; fourth segment very slightly longer than fifth, with 5–8 sensoria; fifth with 4–7 sensoria of unequal size, exclusive of the usual subapical one; sixth with the rather thick basal area less than one-third the length of flagellum, in some however almost half its length; all the segments from the third imbricated. Eyes large. Proboscis reaching to the third coxae. A large palebladder-like papilla on each side of pronotum and five pairs of pale rounded papillae on sides of abdomen. Cornicles about as long and as thick as third antennal segment, cylindrical, markedly imbricated, not reaching to the level of the cauda. Cauda bluntly pointed, about half the length of the cornicles, spinose; with numerous fine hairs, curved apically. Anal plate spinose, with fine pale hairs. Tibiae with numerous fine, pale, short hairs. Wings with normal venation; veins and stigma brown, the veins very faintly and narrowly clouded on each side. Length, 2–2.2 mm.

The principal object of my visit to Antigua, during December 1912, was to study an outbreak of the twig borer of limes which had been reported by the Superintendent of Agriculture from two localities in the island.

At the time of my visit, owing to recent pruning, there were only occasionally infested branches to be seen, but these were in sufficient number to enable me to form a very good opinion of the nature of the attack and of the general habits of the insect.

The attack on a lime branch apparently always begins on a small twig. I am not able to say whether the twig on or in which the egg is laid is dead or dying at the time of egg-laying ; but in every instance of attack observed by me, both in the field and in specimens forwarded, the twig has been found entirely eaten out, the dead interior connecting with the tunnel in the larger branch from which the twig springs. This branch is always more or less girdled by the tunnel of the grub. The girdling seems to be the first thing done by the grub after completing the destruction of the smaller twig and it results in the death of the branch beyond the point of the girdle. The tunnel does not circle the twig in such a manner as to cut it off completely, but the direction is rather in a spiral, so that as the injury to the branch becomes more and more felt, it breaks down and is usually left hanging. The entire grub and pupa stages are passed within this branch, the adult beetle only issuing from the dead branch some time after emerging from its pupal condition.

Many years ago Bezzi realised that the species placed in the genus Ceraiitis, MacL., needed division into smaller groups. Among those he first delimited, Carpoph-thoromyia, Aust., may well be retained as a genus, but most of the others, Parda-laspis, Bez., Perilampsis, Bez., Trirhithrum, Bez., etc., have hardly more than sub-generic value. It is therefore proposed to study all the species concerned in order to discover the true limitations of the groups; and also with a view to stabilising the species themselves for a further study involving dissection of specimens. The last point is of some importance because more detailed work on the morphology cannot be carried out at all satisfactorily until one is quite sure of the specific identity of the specimens used. Further, as the dissection of insect types may be undesirable and few institutions, if any, would allow it to be done, it becomes essential to have specimens critically compared with types, and until this is done, there must always remain some element of doubt in identifications. This paper is thus a beginning of a series on a nreliminarv studv of the subsrenera of Ceratitis.

Adults of Stomoxys calcitrans (L.) that fed on stroma-contaminated haemoglobin plus bovine serum albumin had normal survival, fecundity and egg hatch. Feeding on haemoglobin from which the erythrocyte membrane strome had been removed, together with bovine serum albumin, reduced fecundity to zero. The addition of membrane ghost preparation to a lipid-free haemoglobin and bovine serum albumin diet restored the essential nutrients for normal fly fecundity. For normal reproduction therefore, S. calcitrans adults require erythrocyte stroma.

Nietner in 1880 (“ The Coffee Tree and its Enemies ”) described an Aphis from coffee found in Ceylon and Java as Aphis coffeae. The description is as follows:—“ Both sexes naked, shiny pitch-black with whitish rostrum and legs and greenish abdomen. The rostrum reaches beyond the base of the second pair of legs. The antennae are 7-jointed, the first, second and sixth being short, the rest long, the two basal joints are black, the rest are whitish, black towards apex. Legs with femora and tarsi nearly black, tibiae nearly white, hind legs with base of tibiae slightly curved. Male four-winged, with black stigma in the upper ones. Female apterous. Abdomen in both sexes 2-corniculate and with an anal tube. Size moderate. Young individuals light coloured.” Apparently the male and female described refer to the alate viviparous and apterous viviparous female.

Observations were made at Dorimon in the extreme north-west of Ghana, during the hot months of March and April 1954, of the infectibility of Glossina palpalis (R.-D.) and G. tachinoides Westw. with Trypanosoma vivax.

Pupae were obtained from the Black Volta where shade temperatures ranged from 70 to 98°F. and the flies that emerged from them were kept singly in small glass tubes in the laboratory at a temperature of 85 to 95°F. and a relative humidity of 60 to 80 per cent. They were given several feeds on infected goats. The following percentage rates of infection were observed.

Labrum and (or) hypopharynx: General rate, 56·1; males of G. palpalis, 72·2, females, 34·6; males of G. tachinoides, 68·4, females, 56·8.

Labrum only and labrum & hypopharynx: General rate, 37·4; males of G. palpalis, 27·8, females, 15·4; males of G. tachinoides, 68·4, females, 40·9.

Early infection is the rule but late infections occurred. Some flies appear to be uninfectible. Thus, out of 107 flies, 47 remained uninfected in spite of having had on the average 10·6 infective meals per fly. A high percentage of flies lost their labrum infection.

The following percentage loss of labrum infection was recorded: General rate, 48.8; males of G. palpalis, 66·7, females, 62·5; males of G. tachinoides, nil, females, 43·8.

G. tachinoides appears to be more tenacious of infection than G. palpalis. Feeding infected flies on goats in the negative phase and (or) on spurwing goose (Plectropterus gambensis) did not appear to have any adverse effect on the colonies of trypanosomes in the labrum.

Megaselia arietina Disney sp. n. is described from Yugoslavia and Israel. Its larva leaf-mines chickpeas, Cicer arietinum. In Macedonia, recorded rates of infestation varied from 48.5–74.8% of the available leaves on a plant, with more than 60% of the leaves in a plot being typical. These levels of infestation seem to be related to the poor yields from the affected plots. The leaf-spot fungus Ascochyta rabiei (Coelomycetes) and the rust fungus Uromyces ciceri arietini (Uredinales) contribute to these reduced yields. The Uromyces spores are ingested by the female flies, but they are carried on the labella of the males without being ingested.

This species is not common. It is found mostly in native gardens or in gardens now fallow, preferring maize or long grass. It differs from other species in that it does not bite quickly, but “settles” itself first, as though to get a comfortable position for the legs, etc.; also in that it bites with its wings extended. H. vittata is very quick on the wing and is difficult to capture. It seems more prevalent on dull days, and was not found till the rains had well set in and the herbage was some feet high.

In the course of a study of the biology of the Buprestid, Prospheres aurantiopictus, Cast., in Australia, Mr. A. R. Brimblecombe has obtained from the eggs an interesting small Chalcid belonging to the family Encyrtidae.

Several Encyrtid parasites of insect eggs are already known. In Australia Ovidencyrtus pallidipes, Girault, parasitises Reduviid eggs, Tetracnemella megymeni, Dodd, and T. hyalinipennis, Dodd, Pentatomid eggs, and Cheiloneurus viridiscutum, Girault, has been bred from those of cockroaches. In Hawaii the genera Ectopiognatha, Perkins, and Fulgoridicida, Perkins, are found parasitising the eggs of Homoptera. In addition Leefmansia bicolor, Waterston, has been bred from the eggs of the Orthopteron, Sexava sp., in Amboina and Leurocerus ovivorus, Crawford, from the moth, Amathusia phidippus, L., in Java. But most of the Encyrtid egg parasites belong to the genus Ooencyrtus, Ashmead, and it is among them that is placed the only other species known to breed in the eggs of a Coleopteron, Ooencyrtus batocerae, Ferrière, from Malaya. Another species, Tyndarichus rudnevi, Nowicky, is said to have been obtained from the eggs of Cerambyx cerdo, L., in Russia, but as the species of Tyndarichus are generally considered to be hyperparasites, the real parasite of this European Longicorn is still uncertain.

Lutzomyia verrucarum (Townsend) is an abundant anthropophilic phlebotomine sandfly in the Peruvian Andes between 1500 m and 3000 m asl, where it has been incriminated as a vector of both Leishmania peruviana (cutaneous leishmaniasis) and Bartonella bacilliformis (bartonellosis). Previous studies of this vector demonstrated that sandfly activity, measured by sticky traps, was related to crop type. In this paper, we report the results of a field experiment in Peru (Department of Ancash) which show that a single human host in a crop does not attract Lu. verrucarum from distances of 5 m or more, and that there is a positive correlation between the number of Lu. verrucarum collected by sticky traps and the number attracted to a human host in the same field. The results imply that variation in sandfly activity between crop types could lead to differential risk of both leishmaniasis and bartonellosis for humans working at night in different crops.

Alcestis ingens sp. n. is described from a series of adults collected in stands of hybrid cacao between Ilhéus and Itabuna, Brazil.

The writer had exceptional opportunities for studying sugar-cane moth borers while engaged as entomologist to one of the most progressive cane-growing concerns in British Guiana from September 1922 until January 1925. The observations and data that follow refer to some three thousand acres of typical cultivation situated on the west bank of the Berbice River, nearly opposite the town of New Amsterdam, in which locality the borer pest probably reaches its maximum in destructiveness.

The nature and age dependence of behaviour of Culicoides melleus (Coq.) during and immediately after separation from copulation has been examined. Differences in the timing of events during separation, and consequent retention of the spermatophore, were ascribed to interplay of three factors: (i) the existence of age-dependent physiological mechanisms in both male and female that ‘time’ the course of copulation, (ii) female kicking behaviour which acts as a stimulus causing the male to release his claspers, and (iii) after clasper release, the separatory kicking performance of the female and simultaneous attempts by the male to free the spermatophore's capsule lodged in his genitalia. Post-separatory behaviour of both male and female was age-dependent, but only that of the male was influenced by the presence of the spermatophore. A retained spermatophore caused abdominal grooming to be initiated significantly more frequently as the first action after separation, and to occupy the insect for a substantially larger proportion of its time for the first two minutes after separation. In insects of both sexes, abdominal grooming was the dominant activity after separation giving way to grooming of other bodily parts and locomotory activity. Both young and old males and old females removed a retained spermatophore usually within 40 s of separation. Only very young females performed poorly in this respect, with spermatophores kept usually for at least several minutes and, in some instances, several hours.