So far as could be determined from laboratory experiments the sequence of events relating to blood feeding and the laying of eggs in the life of Stegomyia fasciata was found to be as follows:—

On the second or third day after emergence from the pupa the mosquito takes her initial feed of blood. If she has previously been fertilised she lays her first batch of eggs on the sixth or seventh day, and is ready to feed again on blood a few hours later. Thereafter she lays eggs regularly every third or fourth day, and feeds on blood once only after each batch is laid in preparation for the next batch. The female continues to lay batches of eggs throughout her life, and in this way at least fifteen may be deposited. In order that eggs may be laid at all, both fertilisation and a meal of blood are required, and it is necessary that the fertilisation should precede the blood feed. Once fertilised, the female may continue to lay batches of fertile eggs for at any rate 37 days without being reimpregnated. If the eggs are laid in the early morning, she feeds during the day-time; if in the afternoon or evening, she feeds at night; but sometimes she refuses an offer to feed in daylight in favour of the next opportunity to feed in the dark.

It cannot be said that any satisfactory division of the Tetrastichini has yet been proposed. With the exception of one or two easily recognised groups like Melittobia, Westw., Crataepus, Först., and Hyperteles. Först., the genera are ill-defined, and this is specially the case with Tetrastichus, Hal., and its immediate allies. It has become evident that the mesonotal furrows or impressed lines have not the value for diagnosis that many writers have assigned to them. Recently Kurdjumov (Revue Russe d'Entomologie, xiii, p. 246, 1913) has separated Tetrastichus from Geniocerus, Ratz., by the chaetotaxy of the submarginal, assigning to the former genus those species which have one, and to the latter, species with more than one bristle in this position. Such a division, I believe to be unnatural, as it is certainly inconvenient.* In the following descriptions I have included one species in Tetrastichus though it has more than one bristle on the submarginal. I think it impossible, in the present state of our knowledge of the Tetrastichines, to say what characters are of basal importance. For grouping species, the funicle (shape, segments and chaetotaxy), the position of the scrobes, the shape of the pronotum (especially whether straight-edged or emarginate posteriorly), the chaetotaxy of the mesonotum and the propodeon, give generally the most reliable clues, while specific characters appear to lie in colour, proportions and chaetotaxy of the wings. How far the ring joint can or should be used is doubtful. When consisting of a number of equal rings it may be of some assistance, but in other cases, the basal ring is much the greatest, and it is almost impossible to say whether the succeeding lamina is distinct or not. Even with an oil immersion difficulty may be felt, and there is the further question of the morphological equivalence of these laminae. In the present paper four species assigned to Tetrastichus are described; of these, three are grouped together, mainly on account of antennal and propodeal characters, the fourth I have placed with some others described from dipterous hosts, but if the absence of whorls of hair from the male funicle proves to be more fundamental than the antennal coloration and the propodeal sculpture, possibly all four should go together. In describing the antennae, details are given of the sensoria, which, though rather variable in number on any individual joint, are more constant for the funicle and club as a whole.

Until 13th March I remained in the Proclaimed Area, then, as the weather condition were very bad, and as moreover the grass had so overgrown all the paths, which are little used, that my movements were very much hampered, I removed to Fort Johnston at the southern extremity of the Lake, and have since been working in its neighbourhood.

Hitherto no flies of the family PSychodidae have been recorded from Australia. However, during the year 1913 three specimens of a single species were taken in Townsville, one of which was subsequently submitted to Mr. E. E. Austen, who informed the author that it belonged to the genus Pericoma and was probably a new species. As I have been unable to determine it as one of Brunetti's Oriental species, I now describe it as new.

The Thrips described below was submitted to me by Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall, Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, to whom it had been sent by Mr. T. J. Anderson, the Government Entomologist in British East Africa.

During the past year (1914) the coconut palms in the city of Georgetown have been rather severely attacked hy the larvae of the Coconut Butterfly, Brassolis sophorae, L.

Dr. Andrew Balfour, Director of the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research, has submitted to the writer for study part of the Diptera collected on his recent voyage in the American tropics. A species of Simulium from the valley of the Atrato River in Colombia proves to be new and is described below. Through the good offices of Dr. Balfour further interesting material was received from K. S. Wise, Surgeon-General for British Guiana, and from F. W. Urich, Entomologist of Trinidad. These lots contained an additional new species of Simulium each, of which the descriptions follow. Diptera belonging to other groups and of economic interest will be treated in subsequent papers.

Je n'aurais pas voulu répéter ici ce que j'avais déjà écrit concernant la G. morsitans dans mes rapports précédents, mais, d'autre part, les renseignements que j'y avais donnés sont nécessaires à la clarté et à la compréhension de ce que je vais dire ici.

La Glossina brevipalpis est certainement l'espèce de glossine la plus répandue, dans certaines régions du moins, après la G. morsitans et la G. palpalis, mais elle a des moeurs si particulières que, sans les connaître, on ne peut découvrir son existence que par un simple hasard. En effet, les moeurs de la G. brevipalpis sont vespérales et, en partie, matinales, après le lever et surtout avant et après le coucher du soleil. Durant le reste de la journée la mouche est complétement inactive et se tient cachée (dans les herbes?).

Some form of short-period fever, apparently sandfly fever, seems to have been giving trouble in the Gallipoli area. This fact, together with the small amount of information at present available on the life-histories of the species comprising the genus Phlebotomus, has led me to publish the present note in the hope that it might be of use to medical officers by giving them easily-seen characters by which the early stages of three species may be differentiated. In collaboration with my assistant Mr. Patel, I have been engaged for some time in collecting material for a complete account of the life-histories of these species, but as the publication of this memoir must be deferred to a later date, the present article contains merely a few points which are likely to prove useful under practical conditions of working in the field, and a note on the very curious larval tail-bristles.

There are certain smells remarkably attractive to male flies of the genus Dacus and by the employment of these smells the movements of the flies can to a great extent be controlled, in any given direction. The reaction is strictly confined to the male sex, and different species exhibit a variation as regards the smell which is most attractive to them. It is uncertain whether the females emit similar smells; on the whole improbable.

Three of the commoner species of the flies (D. diversus, ferrugineus and zonatus) normally breed respectively in (1) anthers of Cucurbitaceae, (2) fruits of Solanaceae and mango, and (3) peach, guava, mango and other fruits. D. diversus (1) is most strongly attracted by iso-eugenol, zonatus (3) by methyl-eugenol, and ferrugineus (2) by both methyl and iso-eugenol. The smells of these substances have not yet been identified with those of the plants which constitute the normal breeding-places, but male flies have been found attracted to mango, Papaya, a Cycad, and Colocasia. plants with a very characteristic smell similar to that of eugenol-derivatives. Females have never been seen to frequent these plants or to breed in them, but more extended observation is required on this point before it can be definitely said that they never do so. The males give the impression that they might visit these plants for food, for they suck the surface of the flowers, though they do not seem to exhibit any very particular avidity. One species (ferrugineus?) has been bred from a Eugenia at Bangalore.

Three explanations suggest themselves:.—

(a) The smell is a direct sexual guiding smell emitted by the female.

But young crushed females did not attract males.

(b) The smell is not emitted by the female, but may be termed an “indirect” sexual guide to the plants where the females are accustomed to congregate for breeding purposes.

Under these circumstances it is difficult to see why females should not also be attracted by the odoriferous chemicals.

(c) The smell is a food-smell.

It must then be a food attractive only to males.

Two other species of fruit-flies, D. caudatus (breeding in fruits of Cucurbitaceae) and an unidentified species, were captured by means of an amyl-vanillin solution and of eugenol respectively. The rarity of the flies and the small numbers caught (four and one) make it advisable, however, to postpone detailed comment on these two cases, and future work may give more definite information as to their chemical relations. No substance attractive to male cucurbitae has been found.

All the observations described were made at the Pusa Research Institute, India.

♀.—Head and body shining black, with slight metallic reflections as follows:—Genae dark green, purplish and carmine towards the eye; upper surface of abdomen, in some lights, very faint dark green; tegulae like the rest of the thorax. Antennae dark brown, almost black on scape, pedicel and base of funicle; last two funicular joints lighter; club entirely pale. Wings almost hyaline, but with a faint tinge of yellow, and slightly browned on the submarginal towards the costa, as well as on the punctiform marginal vein. Legs entirely pale yellowish; the posterior femora a little browner on the dorsal edge towards the apex.