While measuring the separate parts of the head in larvae of Anopheles maculi-pennis in the summer of 1926, I observed that in the later stages of the development in each phase the posterior part of the head is in the form of a collar, the length of which increases up to the next moult, whereas the anterior part of the head remains unchanged.

Near O. flavicornis, Lac, but smaller, the 8th and 9th joints of the antennae more strongly transverse, the fore-parts less closely punctured. Head extremely finely, sparingly punctured. Antennae with 3-jointed club, the 8th and 9th joints twice as broad as long, the 10th short, oval. Thorax twice as broad as long, very finely, moderately closely punctured. Elytra a little broader than and about half as long again as the thorax, very finely, moderately closely, asperately punctured. Abdomen strongly narrowed from base to apex, finely and moderately closely punctured on the anterior segments. The whole insect covered with a short, stiff black pulescence, the fore-parts with an extremely fine, more or less transverse ground sculpture.

Aegerita webberi, Fawcett, is a very interesting parasitic fungus which has been recorded as attacking Aleyrodes citri in Florida, Aleyrodes and Aspidiotus in Ceylon, and an undetermined scale in New Zealand, and of which our knowledge has been recently summarised by Petch.* He notes that on the characters of the seal-brown sterile stromata it appeared probable that the forms from the three localities represented three species, but the sporodochia are identical in all, and they must therefore all be referred to A. webberi.

♂♀. Red; thorax dark red; orbits, vertex, ocellar tubercle, almost white; wing veins very dark; costal veins and stigma yellowish red, as are often the tibiae and tarsi; abdomen somewhat darker towards apex.

The identification of mosquito larvae, especially of the genus Anopheles, is now so common a practice in the Tropics that the need of a simpler method of mounting has been widely felt. Whereas in many instances a larva can be identified by examining it alive in a drop of water, in countries where many similar forms are met with mistakes are sometimes made. A great deal of identification work is doneby Health Inspectors who have not the practice necessary for determining species while they are alive, and in Malaya, where some species cannot be separated by an examination of the anterior clypeal hairs alone, a quick method of mounting so that occipital hairs and other structures can be seen is required.

There are in Britain three species of gall midges the larvae of which may be found in pea-pods: the pea midge (Contarinia pisi, Winn.), which is the most common and is sometimes a pest; Lestodiplosis pisi, Barnes, a predator on the former; and Clinodiplosis pisicola, sp. n., an inquiline. The larvae are readily distinguishable both by their colour and by the structure of their anal extremities (fig. 1).

1. Insect pests of the blackberry (Rubus fruticosus, L.) are being studied with a view to discovering insects likely to assist in the biological control of this noxious plant in New Zealand. Habrosyne derasa, L., was the first species brought under observation.

2. Investigations revealed an apparently unique method of oviposition, the eggs of H. derasa being deposited on the points of the serrated leaf-edges of the blackberry.

3. Newly hatched larvae of this moth have been simultaneously tested as to their ability to feed and thrive on the following plants:—Blackberry (normal host), loganberry, raspberry, rose, apple, cherry, plum, pear, and currant. They thrived equally well on the first three plants. Ten-day-old, blackberry-fed larvae, when transferred to rose and apple, fed and some ultimately pupated. Similar larvae transferred to cherry, plum and pear fed sparingly but did not succeed in pupating.

4. When a choice of food-plants was given, feeding was concentrated on blackberry, loganberry and raspberry.

Rhyssa persuasoria and Ibalia leucospoides, both parasitic on Sirex cyaneus, have been studied at Oxford.

Rhyssa lays its eggs in the burrow of and near to the almost or quite full-fed host larva or the pupa, by piercing the solid wood with itsovipositor. Feeding is entirely ectoparasitic and takes only a few weeks, during which the host larva may burrow a little further. The winter is passed by Rhyssa as a resting larva. Pupation takes place in the spring, and the whole life-cycle normally occupies one year.

Ibalia oviposits in the young larva just before ormore rarely just after hatching, utilising the oviposition-bores of the Sirex for this purpose. The first-stage larva is elongate, with sickle-shaped mandibles, and larval feeding seems wholly endoparasitic. Sirex larvae parasitised by Ibalia confine their boring largely to the outer portions of the trunk, and usually make their final cell just under and approximately parallel to the surface. The life-cycle of Ibalia requires at least two years.

Owing to the very different instars which they attack, there seems no risk of superparasitism of Ibalia by Rhyssa or vice versa, and it is therefore suggested that both species be introduced into New Zealand as a measure against Sirex juvencus, which is there very destructive to plantations of Pinus radiata.

In his recently published work, “A Classification of the Higher Groups and Genera of the Coccid Family Margarodidae” (U.S. Dept.Agr., Tech. Bull. no. 52, July 1928), Mr. H. Morrison has made some sweeping alterationsin the previously accepted status of tribes and genera, some of which may possibly be open to criticism. But his classification is so vastly superior to anything hitherto attempted that—if only for the sake of uniformity—it should be adopted until a still better complete classification has been propounded. So far as it affects the matter dealt with in the following paper the only novelty is the erection of a new subfamily, Coelostomidiinae, with several new tribes and genera, to accommodate the species hitherto included in Coelostomidia, together with several allied genera.

With the exception of a few isolated records nothing is known of the Coccidae of Southern Rhodesia. Dr. Brain has made a study of the family in the Union of South Africa, the results of which are to be found in his excellent Monograph,* and Prof. Newstead has described many interesting and hitherto unknown forms from Central Africa in the earlier volumes of this Bulletin.

The following paper is intended only as a preliminary revision of this large and exceedingly important group of parasites, and it is the outcome of some six months' work on a small portion of the large mass of material awaiting identification in the collections of the British Museum and of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology. The writer not only has had access to all the types which he required to see that had been deposited in the British Museum, but also was so fortunate as to have been able to arrange with the authorities of both the United States National Museum and the National Hungarian Museum for exchanges of cotypes where sufficiently long series were available, and consequently has been able to examine and include in his key all, or the large majority of, the species that have been described from the Indo-Australian region by Continental and American writers. It should be placed on record that, in addition, the National Hungarian Museum, when not in a position to exchange cotypes, was so good as to forward to the writer on loan the types themselves. With all this extremely kind co-operation, therefore, it has been possible to make this paper tolerably complete; and for purposes of comparison it has been thought desirable to include in the key numerous Palaearctic and Ethiopian species, the types and cotypes of which are to be found in the British Museum.

The foregoing observations and experimental work clearly indicate that the bulb mite, Rhizoglyphus echinopus, is not a primary pest of the narcissus. At the same time there is every indication that the mite does bring about the destruction of bulbs originally damaged by other organisms or by mechanical means, which would normally recover from their original injuries. Further, the mites can undoubtedly carry fungus spores from bulb to bulb. It is therefore very desirable that every effort should be made to reduce the mite population in bulb-growing areas to a minimum. This can be effected by careful attention to the points enumerated under the heading of control measures.

As Tirathaba rufivena, Walk., is proving to be one of the important minor pests of coconuts in the Federated Malay States, some attention has recently been paid to the parasites of this Pyralid moth.

♂ ♀. Derm black, with dense mosaic-like sandy-brown scaling variegated with grey and blackish scales; the pronotum usually with an indefinite pale median stripe; a greenish grey patch on each side of the prosternum.

In the grounds of the Medical Research Institute at Yaba, near Lagos, some 200 yards north-east of the laboratories there is a swamp, roughly circular, its diameter being about 20 yards. Until the present year, since first coming under observation in 1908, it has been definitely a pond, formerly used for watering cattle; small in the dry season, it sometimes assumed the dimensions of a lake in the rainy season. While it was a pond it harboured at least three different kinds of fish, and except for a few Anopheline larvae on rare occasions it was not a suitable breeding-place for mosquitos owing to the activities of the fish.

During 1926 and subsequently in 1927 the writer's attention was called to the presence of a mite infesting apples in newly planted orchards around East Mailing, Kent.

In the banana-producing area of north-eastern Colombia and in certain parts of Central America, the skins of the banana fruits are sometimes attacked by insects, which gnaw the epidermal tissues and cause unsightly, blackened scars. In some districts so much fruit is thus affected that the matter has become of considerable economic importance; measures intended to reduce the injury have been initiated and studies of the causal organisms commenced.

Amongst a number of larvae collected in the Yokeskei River, about twelve miles from Johannesburg, on 31.v.1928, two were found which appeared to be new. These subsequently pupated and finally hatched, one on 15.vi.1928 and the other on 18.vi. 1928. The adults were seen to be Anopheles argenteolobatus, Gough. Repeated collecting after this has failed to reveal further specimens. Larvae of the following mosquitos were found in the same pool: Anopheles squamosus, A. cinereus, A. rufipes, Culex salisburiensis, and C. theileri.