Aspidiotus destructor is a well-known pest of several tropical crops, mainly coconuts and bananas, and is present in most tropical countries. In Fiji it was a serious menace to the copra industry, and attempts to control it by biological means were made in 1920, when parasites were introduced from Tahiti ; in 1927, when other parasites were introduced from Java ; and in 1928, when predators were imported from Trinidad. The introductions made in 1920 and 1927 proved of no economic value, but the predators from Trinidad completely suppressed the pest in 1928 and 1929, and have controlled it most satisfactorily ever since.

In this article is recorded the finding of eggs of Ficalbia (Ficalbia) minima, Theo., which were hitherto unknown. A description of these eggs is given and they are compared with eggs of Mansonioides which occur in a similar situation.

The question of the effect of poisons on the blood of insects is a new one in entomo-toxicological literature. In a series of works by Metalnikov (1908, 1924, 1927) we have a study of the reaction of the blood of the larva of the Wax Moth (Galleria mellonella) in consequence of an injection into the body cavity of various substances and morbiferous microbes. The paper by Mrs. Tareeva and Nenyukov (1931) describes, very briefly and in general features, the picture of the blood of Calliptamus italicus in the case of poisoning by means of sodium arsenate or sodium fluoride.

Uranotaenia painei, sp. n.

♂♀.—Head clothed with blackish scales, many erect and forked. Proboscis dark, slightly shorter than abdomen but not thickened. Thorax rather dark ochreous-brown, uniform in tint, except that the postnotum is darker, without ornamentation of any kind; bristles and scales dark. No flat scales above wing-root, and no scales at all on front margin of mesonotum or on posterior pronotal lobes; a patch of small flat scales on upper part of sternopleura which are difficult to detect as they are of the same colour as the integument. Abdomen entirely dark brown both above and below. Legs uniformly dark brown, devoid of special features in ♂; first tarsal segment of fore and mid legs about as long as tibia, that of hind legs slightly longer than tibia. Wings dark, venation and scaling normal; length 2·5 mm.

Newly Hatched Tsetse (0–1 day old).

1. Neither species is affected by daily maximum temperatures of 95–102°F.

2. Possibly the death of any weakly tsetse is accelerated by a temperature of 102·5°F.

3. The critical zone for G. tachinoides is 103° to 105°F., but at the latter temperature 100 per cent. mortality is only assured if this maximum lasts for about 100 minutes.

4. The critical zone for G. submorsitans is 103·5° to 106°F.

5. If maintained for 60 minutes, 106°F. assures 100 per cent. mortality among young flies of both species.

Old Tsetse (over 10 days old).

6. The critical zone for G. tachinoides is 102° to 105·5°F.

7. The critical zone for G. submorsitans is 102·5° to 106°F.

8. The sudden increase in mortality among tsetse upon very hot days would appear to be directly due to the maximum temperature having entered the critical zone, and not to excessively low humidity or very high evaporation.

9. The critical zone for old flies starts at about 1°F. lower than for newly hatched flies.

10. G. tachinoides is rather more susceptible to high maximum temperatures than is G. submorsitans ; results also suggest that G. tachinoides cannot withstand an exposure of long duration at high temperatures as well as G. submorsitans.

Until about ten years ago Australia was considered to be free from the haematophagous Diptera of the genus Phlebotomus, which are found abundantly in all other regions of the earth, over one hundred species having been recorded. Mr. G. F. Hill was the first entomologist to discover in Australia a species of the minutus group, which he described under the name of P. queenslandi. This species was found in Townsville, North Queensland, in a bath-room, and nine flies were secured. It has not been found again since, either there or lower down the Australian east coast, where such experienced entomologists as Drs. Bancroft, Ferguson and Mackerras, have kept a special look-out for these flies.

For some years economic entomologists in Kenya and Uganda have recognised two species of Capsids of more than usual importance. Lygus simonyi, Reut., was a pest on coffee in Kenya, and Lygus vosseleri, Popp., was injurious to cotton in Uganda. The species were originally identified from the keys and descriptions of B. Poppius in his “Die Miriden der Äthiopischen Region” (Acta. Soc. Sci. Fenn. 41, no. 3, 1912, & 44, no. 3, 1914). This monograph although indispensable to anyone working on the systematics of the African Capsidae, is on the whole rather unsatisfactory. The illustrations are few and far between, the genera are often based on relative and overlapping characters and the specific differentiations are vague. It is not suprising therefore that the original determination of the coffee Capsid now proves to be incorrect. Thanks to the courtesy of Dr. Richard Frey, of the University Zoological Museum, Helsingfors, and Dr. Max Beier, of the Natural History Museum, Vienna, I have now been able to examine type material of these two species.

Au mois de mars de l'année 1933 j'ai accepté l'invitation de Monsieur E. Guest, Officier inspecteur de l'Agriculture en Iraq et en même temps Botaniste, de visiter l'Iraq pour lui aider dans quelques travaux qu'il voulait poursuivre, et le 30 mars j'ai quitté Jérusalem, accompagné par Monsieur Guest et par Monsieur M. Zohary, mon assistantet collaborateur. Arrivant à Baghdad les premiers jours d'avril, j'ai été invité par Monsieur le Ministre des Economies et des Communications et par le Directeur Général de l'Agriculture de faire cette visite au compte du Gouvernement Iraquien et de m'intéresser pendant mon tour spécialement aux problèmes de la botanique appliquée et particulièrement au problème des sauterelles et du reboisement et de l'afforestation. J'ai accepté volontiers cette invitation. Il me fallait prolonger le séjour en Iraq de dix jours de plus qu'il a été projeté d'abord. Ces dix jours étaient presque entièrement consacrés à l'étude de la végétation des champs de ponte des sauterelles.

1. The increase in weight of flies of both sexes is followed on several diets. Unfed flies and flies fed on water alone or on meat and water lose weight. Males fed on meat, sugar and water, or on sugar and water, increase in weight rapidly during the first day of adult life and then lose weight until they die. Females fed on sugar and water increase in weight rapidly for the first day and then more slowly until the twelfth day, when they commence to lose weight until death occurs. A similar rapid increase in weight on the first day occurs in females fed on meat, sugar and water, but a second period of rapid increase occurs between the fourth and sixth days. The first period corresponds to the growth of the imaginal fat-body and the second to the growth of the ovaries. The percentage dry weight of flies fed on meat, sugar and water and on sugar and water increases rapidly at first but then decreases slowly until death occurs.

2. The disappearance of the pupal fat-body cells and the growth of the imaginal fat-body on several diets is described. It is suggested that the inclusions of the pupal fat-body cells are transferred to the rapidly growing imaginal fat-body.

3. The hypothesis is put forward that the abdominal air-sacs in flies of the Muscid type have but little respiratory function and are chiefly concerned in

(a) preserving the increased volume of the newly-emerged fly ;

(b) providing ample space within the abdomen for growth of the imaginal fat-body in the male and for the fat-body and ovaries in the female, both of which organs increase greatly in size.

Although on the whole our plantations of exotic conifers, now amounting to some 500,000 acres, have not yet suffered from widespread epidemics, there are certain exotic insects already well established in the country that must be considered as potentially dangerous. Attention is being given to the most important of these.

During my work on the life-history of the Chalcid, Euchalcidia caryobori, Hanna (Hanna 1933), which parasitises the pupae and the late larval stages of the Bruchid, Caryoborus pallidus, Oliv., infesting senna pods, great difficulty was experienced in obtaining the material. Infested senna pods arrive in London from the Sudan between June and August. Any pods arriving after or before that are not usually infested to any considerable extent. To guard against this lack of material, a large supply of parasitised and unparasitised pupae of the Bruchid was obtained when available by sifting the senna pods and keeping them in large glass jars at a constant temperature of 27°C. The Chalcid soon emerges and deposits its eggs through the cocoon on the unparasitised pupae of the Bruchid and feeds on peeled sultanas placed on a cardboard tray on top of the material and moistened every day. The sultanas were changed every three days to avoid fermentation.

Lygus simonyi has been found to cause serious damage to cotton in Uganda, by sucking the young leaves and apical buds, by retarding the growth of the branches, and by sucking the young bolls.

There are indications that soil and climatic factors are of importance in controlling this insect ; excessive succulence of the plant appears to be one factor associated with severe damage.

1. G. swynnertoni is a source of danger to man and to cattle. Until reclamation was started it was rapidly advancing in the Shinyanga District and was driving the native population in front of it.

2. Round Shinyanga this species occurs in gently undulating country supporting four main types of vegetation, namely:— (a) a Commiphora Fischeri community found on the well-drained rises with a good grass growth ; (b) a Lannea humilis-Commiphora Schimperi community on low-lying hard-pan areas in which the grass is poor and patchy ; (c) communities in which the grass growth is good and the main trees are Acacia spp. ; (d) a plains community, partly treeless, partly covered with shadeless woods of the small gall acacias, which are swampy during the rains and very dry at other periods of the year ; during the dry season the trees are completely leafless, and very dry and severe conditions prevail.

3. Game is in moderate numbers throughout the year, so that there is no lack of food in any type of vegetation.

4. The majority of flies living in the hard-pan areas obtain and digest their food there. Flies behave similarly in the C. Fischeri association, but some of them whilst searching for food may encounter a hard-pan area, where they will continue their search for food. When they get food they may or may not return to the C. Fischeri association to digest it. If a fly strikes a road or open plain it will patrol this until it finds food, when it will return to more sheltered vegetation to digest it.

5. G. swynnertoni is mainly a thicket-breeder, though pupae are also found under decumbent logs, overhanging rocks and in hollows at the bases of trees. Where the C. Fischeri was much broken up by valleys of hard pan, breeding was found to be taking place to the same extent in the thickets of both of these types.

6. G. swynnertoni is commonest in hard pan, much less common in C. Fischeri, scarce in the Acacia bush types worked in Shinyanga, and least common in the open plains.

7. When flies are numerous, each of the first three types enumerated in (2) is able to support a fly-community. When the flies are scarce, the C. Fischeri and the Acacia communities lose their flies to the hard pan and hence are little infested. The hard pan is to a far greater degree self-contained as regards the requirements of the fly.

8. G. swynnertoni is commonest during the first month or two of the dry season. As the dry season progresses it decreases in numbers and reaches its minimum during the short rains. There is a rise in the short dry season following the improvement of conditions brought about by the early rains ; after this numbers remain fairly constant until the end of the long rains. Hunger and female percentage are least in the beginning of the break of the short rains.

9. There is no indication that the concentrations of fly in the hard-pan areas disperse at the end of the rains.

10. Like Glossina morsitans, G. swynnertoni appears to find food by sight rather than by scent. The part that scent plays in the matter has hardly been finally elucidated.

11. G. swynnertoni is capable of crossing an 800 yards clearing without the assistance of game, irrespective of whether the clearing passes over alluvial or eluvial soil. It is the hungry flies mainly that cross. They are presumably searching for food.

12. The hungrier a fly is the more persistent it is in following man. Males are more persistent followers than females.

13. An experimental attempt was made to exterminate G. swynnertoni by hand-catching off screens in a block of 15 square miles during sixteen months. Reduction in numbers occurred, but flies continued to exist in the block because the isolating clearings were too narrow. Further, female flies do not appear sufficiently readily to catchers, so that breeding is able to continue.

14. A very large rise in female percentage occurred. A similar but lower rise marked an experiment in the catching-out of G. palpalis by hand on Mugasiro Island, near Musoma, by Robert Koch in 1913. In this the catching was off man only.

1. At 27°C. the life-cycle of Dysdercus howardi occupies approximately 32 days.

2. Copulation (at 27°C.) takes place approximately 2·8 days after the last moult of the female insect.

3. At 27°C. oviposition begins about 8 days after the last moult of the female, and 5–6 days after mating.

4. The average number of eggs laid by one female is 141·9 and the average number of batches is two.

5. Mortality appears to be highest among the 5th stage nymphs.

6. The ratio of females to males is 1: 1·27.

7. The average length of adult life in the female Dysdercus howardi is eleven days.

8. A table comparing D. howardi with other species of the genus Dysdercus is given.

Since the publication of my 1931 revision of the genus Diatraea, Guilding, in which 48 American species were treated, a considerable number of additional specimens of these moths has reached me from various sources. This material forms the foundation of the present paper, but I am also taking advantage of this opportunity to add certain references to the systematics which have come to my notice recently, as well as new locality and host records and descriptions of the early stages of some of the species ; the larval and pupal descriptions, however, are given primarily for the use of field workers, and should not be interpreted as technical diagnoses.

1. Attention is drawn to the presence of Liothrips vaneeckei upon lilies in this country and reference is made to its known distribution and host plants.

2. The various stages of the thrips are described and figured.

3. The life-history and habits, together with the injury caused, are discussed.

4. Control measures are considered. A method of fumigation with paradichlorbenzene is described, and the necessary apparatus to employ and technique to observe when fumigating upon a commercial scale are outlined.

1. The survey of Diatraea spp. in their primitive habitats has been extended to cover the interior Guiana plateau, the Rio Branco, the lower Rio Negro and the lower Amazon.

2. The greatest practical result has been the discovery and introduction into British Guiana of the Amazon fly parasite (Metagonistylum minense) of D. saccharalis.

3. The most interesting ecological result was the finding of several Diatraea spp. as original members of a true savannah association.

4. The twelve species considered are grouped as forest, riparian, savannah and domestic species.

5. The two forest species are D. bellifactella and D. brunnescens.

6. Riparian grass associations are developed over huge areas on the lower Amazon, where they may be divided roughly into three main zones, dominated by Paspalum repens, Echinochloa polystachya and Paspalum fasciculatum, respectively.

7. The chief, and in fact only Diatraea of the first and second zones, is D. saccharalis, which is occasionally abundant.

8. The P. fasciculatum zone is colonised by D. amazonica and D. myersi.

9. The pure savannah species are D. canella, D. impersonatella, D. savannarum and D. cayennella.

10. D. lineolata is practically confined to maize, and no wild host-plants, either naturalised or indigenous, are known.

11. Five species attack cane, namely, saccharalis, busckella, impersonatella, canella and albicrinella, and all except the latter are major pests over considerable areas.

This mite was described by Froggatt as attacking oats in New South Wales in 1921 (Agric. Gaz. N.S.W. 3rd Jan. 1921) under the name of Notophallus bicolor, sp. n., but with a very inadequate description. In my paper of 1933 “ On some Acarina from Australia and South Africa ” (Trans. Roy. Soc. South Aust. 57, pp. 108–112) I recorded it from the Cape Town area of South Africa, as well as from certain States of the Australian Commonwealth, giving a redescription and detailed figures. The generic name was changed to Penthaleus, as it had been shown that Notophallus of Canestrini 1886 was synonymous with Koch's Penthaleus of 1838. At that time, although so far as I was aware no recent redescription of any of the European species of Penthaleus had been published, I gave P. bicolor (Frog.) as doubtfully synonymous with P. major (Dugès 1834), a species considered by European workers as the same as P. haematopus, Koch 1835, and P. insulanus, Thorell, 1872.