Llaveia abrahami, sp. nov.

Female, adult. Ovate, strongly gibbose above and flattened beneath; segmentation both on the dorsum and venter distinct. Colour, in alcohol, buff-yellow; with a thin deposit of white secretion in the hollows between the segments; legs and antennae yellowish brown. It is highly probable that much of the secretion had disappeared in the alcohol in which the specimens were preserved. Antennae of eleven segments, 2nd and 11th longest; 3rd a little shorter than the latter, but much longer than the succeeding ones, which are submoniliform in shape; average length 0·8–0·9 mm. Legs relatively short; tarsi a little more than half the length of the tibiae; front pair shortest, measuring 0·85 mm.; posterior pair longer, measuring 1–1·1 mm.; hairs relatively long and slender; claws simple, though in one example two of these organs have a well-marked tooth-like projection dorsally, just above the curved tip. Derm both dorsally and ventrally rather thickly set with very short fine hairs; margin with a narrow band of long fine hairs, the longest of which measure 0·6–0·7 mm. Pores dorso-ventrally relatively very small, circular and with beaded rims; these are less numerous than the fine hairs; those at the margins are slightly larger, much more numerous, and many have clear triangular-shaped centres. Anal segment of abdomen with three large ovate rings, the central one being slightly the largest and measuring about 0·2 mm. in its longest axis. Length, after maceration in KOH, 8–9 mm.

The opinion that trypanosomiasis of the T. pecorum type is, under favourable conditions, transmissible amongst domestic stock through the agency of blood-sucking flies other than Glossina has been expressed by several observers.

During the past summer (1916) Mr. C. B. Williams has, on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Trinidad, been engaged in investigating the natural enemies of Tomaspis and its allies, in the hopes of finding some effective means of controlling the froghopper, Tomaspis saccharina, Dist., which in recent years has caused considerable damage to the sugar plantations of Trinidad. With this object Mr. Williams has made collections of minute parasitic Hymenoptera in the Island and the adjacent mainland of British Guiana, and this material has from time to time been forwarded to me for study. Mr. Williams has from the first been fully alive to the importance of securing any specimens of the egg-destroying Paraphelinus, Perk., and I am glad to find species of this interesting genus in the gatherings from both Trinidad and British Guiana. The literature dealing with Paraphelinus is scattered and perhaps inaccessible to those to whom it is most likely to prove serviceable. I have therefore, in some introductory notes, recapitulated the main facts in the life-history and host attachment and added a bibliography to the present paper.

The thrips described below has recently been a source of considerable damage to orchids grown for ornamental purposes in Trinidad, West Indies. Up to the present it has not been found on wild orchids and it is possible that it is not indigenous to this island. A large number of orchids are brought over from Venezuela and it may have been imported with them from that country.

Since the publication of my previous paper on the Ethiopian fruit-flies of the genus Dacus, I have received some additional species, the descriptions of which are given in the following pages, with the purpose of completing our knowledge of this very important genus of Diptera. For the material here illustrated I am indebted to Dr. Guy A. K. Marshall, Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, and to Dr. Alberto Mochi, of Ghinda, Erythraea: to whom I have to offer my best thanks.

Wesché employed the relative length of the trumpets to the length of the thorax and the shape of the openings of the trumpets in drawing up a Key to the Pupae of West African Culicidae (Bull. Ent. Res., i, pp. 18–19). Howard, Dyar and Knab in their valuable monograph “ The Mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West Indies ” (Vol. i, pp. 102–103) state that in their experience too much has been made of the difference between the pupal trumpets of Anopheles and Culex; the variations in the shape, size, and length of the breathing trumpets between different species are numerous, they say, but “ furnish no characteristics which are diagnostic of genera or larger groups.” They consider that there are intermediate forms and that differences between species are frequently more striking than between genera themselves. They remark also that this may equally well apply to the differences in shape of the pupal paddles, admitting, however, that “ there is a striking difference between the two tribes Culicini and Sabethini ” as regards the paddles for “ In the Culicini the paddles are large, broad and rounded in outline; they are strengthened by a stout longitudinal midrib which bears a spine or seta apically.

The existence in Mauritius of the Melolonthid beetle, Phytalus smithi, Arrow, was detected for the first time in July 1911 on those lands of Mon Rocher Estate which adjoin the Royal Botanical Gardens of Pamplemousses. It was at once suspected that this new pest of the sugar-cane must have been conveyed into the Colony by some shipment or other of sugar-cane cuttings from abroad, but no clue could be found as to its country of origin until February 1912, when it was detected in Barbados by Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall, Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, who was then on his way to the Agricultural Conference held at Trinidad in that year.

The object of this paper is to supplement an article which appeared early in 1914 in the Journal of the Board of Agriculture of British Guiana (Vol. iii, No. 3.) At that time it was proposed to publish a further account of these insects as soon as more species had been collected and identified, and fuller information gained. Also, taking into consideration the great economic importance of the Coccidae, it has been deemed advisable to disseminate as widely as possible all information which has been acquired concerning them locally. In the previous article, some fifty-one species were enumerated and notes recorded concerning their habits and economic importance. In this paper information appertaining to sixty-eight species is given, a number of which are new to science. Further knowledge with regard to the parasites and predaceous enemies has been gained, as well as their economic status.

Aserica variegata, sp. nov.

Ferruginea, subopaca, fronte, pronoti macula magna tripartita elytrorumque plagis tessellatis viridinigris; sat longe ovalis, corpore supra et subtus irregulariter albo-setoso, scutelli lateribus elytrorumque basi densius setosis, partibus obscuribus fere nudis, hic et illic dorso squamis nonnullis majoribus ornato; clypeo grosse et rugose punctato, antice leviter emarginato, fronte et pronoto parce punctatis, hujus lateribus leviter arcuatis, angulis anticis acutis, posticis rectis, elytris profunde striatis, intervallis convexis; pygidio parce punctato et setoso, linea mediana laevi; pedibus haud brevibus, tibiis anticis fortiter bidentatis, posticis modice latis.

Tragocephala maynei, sp. nov.

T. nobili (Fab.) affinis, sed differt capitis medio haud vittato, elytris prope basin non transversim fasciatis. Capite inter antennas sat lato fere piano, margine antica frontis genarumque et macula pone oculum coeruleis; prothorace utrinque ante tuberculum lateralem ochreo-fulvo fasciato, basi lateraliter coerulescente; elytris nigro-velutinis, utrisque maculis quatuor ochreo-fulvis notatis: macula prima ad latus paullo pone humerum, secunda transversa et tertia parva rotunda obliquiter positis pone medium, quarta transversa paullo ante apicem; macula infra humerum, puncta postero-laterali, et macula minuta ad suturam vix ante apicem coerulescentibus; corpore inferiore pedibusque coerulescentibus, nigro fasciatis et maculatis; antennis (♀) paullo pone medium elytrorum transeuntibus, scapo ad apicem angustim cicatricoso; prosterno sat lato, antice verticali et transversim truncato, mesosterno antice late rotundato; femoribus brevibus subclavatim incrassatis.

Pendulinus devastans, sp. nov.

Above with the head, pronotum, scutellum and corium ochraceous, thickly darkly punctate; narrow margins to the pronotum and scutellum and the margins and venation to corium pale ochraceous and impunctate; membrane shining bronzy-brown; body beneath and legs pale ochraceous; head beneath and sternum thickly but not darkly punctate, a small shining black spot on each side near outer margins of posterior coxae; tibiae sometimes moderately roseate in hue; antennae reddish-ochraceous, apical joint either paler in hue, or testaceous with the bases and apices paler, basal joint moderately thickened and a little curved outwardly, its apical area somewhat incrassate, first and second joints almost subequal in length, second and third joints slender, second longer than third, fourth incrassate, subequal in length to third; head above centrally longitudinally incised; lateral pronotal angles subprominent; venation of corium robust.