As stated in my previous paper on the Ethiopian species of Dacus, the Oriental forms of this genus show much more variation in their structural and ornamental features. They may be therefore divided into no less than five well defined genera, only one of which is common to both faunal areas. Reserving for later publication a third paper on the Oriental (and Australian) species, I will give here some notes on the classification and feeding habits of the species from British India.

Eupelminus tarsatus, Waterst. (1916).

Eupelminus tarsatus, Waterston, Bull. Ent. Res., vi, Feb. 1916, p. 389, figs. 7 and 8 ; Lamborn, ibid., vii, May 1916, p. 34.

A series of both sexes of this parasite of Glossina morsitans enables me to describe the male for the first time and the female more fully. One of the striking features about this species, apart from its remarkable sexual dimorphism, is the great range in size which it exhibits. The females run from 3½ mm. to 5 mm. and the males from 1½ mm. to 2¼ mm., with a range in the alar expanse of 2¼ mm. to 3¾ mm. The larger female examples are invariably darker and more metallic in coloration. Dr. Lamborn is certainly right in correlating the smaller size of some of the parasites with a reduced food supply (l.c. p. 35). I cannot yet agree, however, that the parasitic status of E. tarsatus is definitely fixed by our present knowledge of its habits. Plainly the proportion of Mutilla-parasitised puparia supplied to the Eupelminus females was larger than could have occurred under natural conditions. Again, the factors, whatever they are, inducing Mutilla to oviposit in a particular puparium may be equally decisive for the female Eupelminus. If, for example, in two cases three Eupelminus punctures all close together could be seen with a high-power lens one might suggest that some structural peculiarity invited the attack. Nor, incidentally, is it legitimate to infer that because a puparium observed to be stung produced no Eupelminus the attack had failed. The presumption is that the attack had not been delivered, stinging and ovipositing being, in many cases, two separate processes. Many Chalcids plunge the ovipositor into ova, puparia, etc., and then, applying the mouth to the wound, suck up the contents which have been expelled. In other cases the first stinging observed is merely the narcotising and rendering antiseptic of the host, which precedes the real introduction of the ova. The parasitic status of Eupelminus can, in fact, be settled only by examination of puparia, collected under natural conditions, from which the Chalcids have been noted to emerge.

Prolaelius glossinae, sp. nov.

♀. Nigra ; scapo apice, flagello articulo primo, tibiis tarsisque anticis brunneotestaceis ; alis medio late leviterque infuscatis ; basi et marginibus hyalinis.

Head as long as the greatest breadth, narrowed both in front of and behind the eyes ; opaque, very finely and shallowly reticulate, with sparse piliferous punctures. Eyes separated across the frons by twice the diameter of either and situated nearer to the base of the mandibles than to the posterior margin of the head ; ovate and smooth ; ocelli in an equilateral triangle, the posterior pair a little farther from each other than from the hind margin of the head. Antennae thirteen-jointed, as long as the thorax and propodeon together. Scape about twice the pedicel, the latter slightly exceeding the first funicular joint ; joints of the funicle subequal, no definite club ; the last joint and the fourth and fifth of the funicle longer, equalling the pedicel.

Amongst some insects bred this year from Lecanium viride on coffee in Mauritius, and forwarded to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology for identification by M. d'Emmerez de Charmoy, were two species of Chalcids belonging to the genera Diversinervus, Silv. (1915) and Tetrastichus, Hal. (1843) respectively. The former, which appears to differ considerably from the genotype, is here described as a new species ; the latter so closely agrees with Tetrastichus sicarius, Silv., that I have not thought it advisable to propose a new name. My best thanks are due to Professor Silvestri for his kindness in examining preparations of both species.

A small number of Haematopota from the Congo were recently sent for determination to the British Museum by M. E. Roubaud of the Pasteur Institute. Among these were specimens of an interesting new species of the H. pertinens group, and as M. Roubaud was kind enough to say that the type of this species might be deposited in the British Museum, I undertook to describe it, including at the same time, at Dr. G. A. K. Marshall's request, descriptions of a few of the numerous unrecorded African species of this genus in the collections of the British Museum and the Imperial Bureau of Entomology.

Samples of water containing mosquito larvae are collected at Accra by the Sanitary Inspectors, and are sent regularly to the Laboratory for identification. The number of samples submitted in this way is never very large, and varies considerably from time to time; but, recently, a careful examination has been made of all the specimens received during a complete year, and it is proposed to analyse in this paper the materials thus collected. In 1910–1911 Graham made a similar study of the larvae found in native water-receptacles at Lagos, and it will therefore be interesting to compare our results with those obtained by him.

Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast Colony, is situated on the coast a few miles west of the meridian of Greenwich and about 330 miles north of the Equator. The town itself is divided into three portions, Accra proper to the west, Christiansborg where the Governor resides to the east, and the official residential area Victoriaborg between these two. The surrounding country is level for some miles, but the actual site of the town slopes slightly upwards as it recedes from the sea. Accra is a very dry and dusty town, almost completely denuded of vegetation. The rainfall is low ; during the twelve months under consideration, December 1914 to November 1915, 21·75 inches of rain fell. During the same period the maximum shade temperature averaged 85·39°, the minimum 73·83°, and the relative humidity 72·46°. The physical features and climatic conditions of Accra differ therefore greatly from those of Lagos, a low-lying town surrounded by swamps with an average rainfall of about 70 inches.

British Guiana lies between the latitudes 0·41′ N. (source of the Essequebo River) and 8° 33′ 22″ N. (Punta Playa), has a depth from north to south of about 500 miles, a seaboard of about 270 miles trending in a south-easterly direction, and occupies in the north-east of South America an area approximately equal in extent to Great Britain. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Surinam or Dutch Guiana, on the south and south-west by Brazil, and on the west by Venezuela.

The Colony may be divided broadly into three belts. The northern one consists of a low-lying flat and swampy belt of marine alluvium—the coastal region. This rises gradually from the seaboard and extends inland for a distance varying from 5 to 49 miles. It is succeeded by a broader and slightly elevated tract of country of sandy and clayey soils. This belt is generally undulating, and is traversed in places by sand-dunes rising from 50 to 180 ft. above sea-level. The more elevated portion of the Colony lies to the southward of the above-mentioned regions. It rises gradually to the south-west, between the river valleys, which are in many parts swampy, and contains three principal mountain ranges, several irregularly distributed smaller ranges, and in the southern and eastern parts numerous isolated hills and mountains. The eastern portion is almost entirely forest-clad, but on the south-western side there is an extensive area of flat grass-clad savannah land elevated about 300 feet above sea-level.

Phlebotomus major, var. chinensis, var. n.

This variety differs from the description of P. major given by Annańdale by the relatively greater length of the proximal segment of the superior claspers, and, also in the male, in having the second, third, and fourth segments of the palpi of equal length. There are also slight colour differences in both sexes, but little importance can be attached to such a variable character.

The new species, described below, have been received from Mr. R. Dupont, Superintendent of Botanic Stations in the Seychelles.

Aspidiotus (Chrysomphalus) ansei, sp. nov. (fig. 1).

Female puparium irregularly circular or broadly ovate ; flattish or moderately convex. Very pale brownish ochreous, semitransparent ; pellicles darker, central. Diameter averaging 1·45 mm.

Male puparium smaller and more distinctly ovate ; pellicle nearer one extremity. Length 1 mm.

Adult female broadly rounded in front, narrowed and bluntly pointed behind. Margins of abdominal segments moderately produced. Pygidium (fig. 1) with six well developed prominent rounded lobes, the median pair indented on each side, the two lateral lobes more conspicuously indented on the outer side. Squames. long and deeply fimbriate : two in each of the median and first lateral spaces, three in the second lateral space, and three beyond the outer lateral lobe, followed immediately by a stout marginal prominence, beyond which the margin is slightly cristate for a short distance. Spines few, small and inconspicuous. Paraphyses, four on each side, elongate, conspicuous. Anal orifice near the extremity. Circumgenital glands in four groups: upper laterals with 3 to 4 pores, lower laterals with 2 to 3. Oval dorsal pores in two series on each side. Numerous long slender ducts communicating with the dorsal and marginal pores. Length, 1 mm.

Mr. A. H. Ritchie, Government Entomologist of Jamaica, has recently sent home specimens of a large black weevil which he has found doing serious damage to pine-apples in that island. The insect proves to be a new species of Metamasius, of the sub-family Calandrinae, and I have much pleasure in naming it after its discoverer.