The following report is the fifth and last of a series dealing with entomological research in the British Possessions in West Africa. The other four have appeared in previous issues of this Bulletin, and in them the aims and methods adopted have been stated in considerable detail. This paper deals mainly with the results of personal observations on the geographical distribution of the various blood-sucking insects in the Gold Coast, made during a tour in that country from November 1912 to June 1913; with these are incorporated, wherever possible, records of previous workers in this line, and consequently the report may be taken as a general summary of entomological work accomplished in this Colony.

In Southern Rhodesia conditions are better than in most other parts of Africa for gathering information concerning the distribution of tsetse in the past, and perhaps even in the present. This is due to a combination of two factors, namely, that only one species of tsetse, Glossina morsitans, is found within our borders, and that the territory, in comparison with the Central African States, contains and has contained a relatively large European population. The first factor eliminates the possibility of confusion of species in connexion with the evidence forthcoming, at least in the case of those able to distinguish tsetse from other species of bloodsucking flies, whilst the second provides a more reliable source of information than the native.

Collections recently received by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, chiefly from Natal, have brought to light several interesting new forms in this group of flies, and their study has yielded certain unlooked for results which it appears desirable to place on record, together with descriptions of the new species, the types of which have been presented by the Bureau to the British Museum. The opportunity has been taken of publishing revised keys to the African species of Banksinetta and Taeniorhynchus.

The following notes embody the results of observations made during a year of service (May 1913 to May 1914) as the Entomologist in the Agricultural Department of the Southern Provinces, Nigeria. They do not, however, pretend to cover more than a very limited area of the Western Province, for on account of the desirability of beginning the work by making myself acquainted with local conditions by a careful study of the insect problems at the head-quarters of the Department, at Moor Plantation, Ibadan, I suggested that the first few months of my tour should be spent there, hoping afterwards to be afforded an opportunity, which unfortunately was not forthcoming, of making a more general survey of the insect pests of the country. I have confined my remarks to insects which are to be looked on as real pests, and have made no reference to the bionomics of other insects which I have observed to be associated with the indigenous flora. I have classified the pests according to the plant attacked, and have added to my account of each notes as to the measures found useful in dealing with them.

The Acari dealt with in this paper were collected by Dr. G. F. Petrie during his plague investigations in Egypt. My best thanks are due to him and also to the authorities of the Lister Institute for their kindness in permitting me to examine this collection.

The following are preliminary diagnoses of new species of Culicidae from Kuching, Sarawak. The specimens were received from Mr. J. C. Moulton, and either were collected by the donor, or formed part of the old collection of mosquitos in the Sarawak Museum, which was for the most part obtained in the neighbourhood of Kuching by Messrs. J. Hewitt and J. E. A. Lewis. The types are all in the British Museum.

The most serious pests that at the present time are threatening the great wool and sheep industry of Australia, are the sheep-maggot flies (blow-flies belonging to the genus Calliphora). Until about ten years ago blown wool on living healthy sheep was unknown, sheep that were worried and torn by dogs were blown, and rams that damaged their heads fighting might have to be dressed and cleaned of maggots, but the bush blow-flies had not until about that date acquired or developed the habit of depositing eggs or living maggots in the soiled or damp fleece of the ordinary station paddock sheep.

These experiments were performed in response to a question submitted to me from the Royal Sanitary Institute. The point at issue was the possibility of eggs of the common bed-bug, Cimex lectularius, surviving the process of house-destruction, when the plaster from old walls, on which eggs had been laid, was broken down and remixed with fresh mortar for making the partitions of rooms in new tenements; such survival having been given as an explanation for previously unoccupied houses being infested with bugs.

The English specimens listed below were captured on wild examples of the brown rat by the author, and those from Scotland by Waterston. Several of these mites have already been recorded by Dr. A. C. Oudemans and other authors as occurring on this host. Only three of the species (Laelaps echidninus, Notoedres muris and Myobia ensifera) can be regarded with certainty as being practically restricted to Mus norvegicus, but this is possibly also the case with Haemogamasus oudemansi, which so far has only been found on this host. The other species are frequently found on other mammals or in their nests, especially in that of the mole (see Oudemans, Acarologisches aus Maulwurfsnestern, Arch. Naturg. Berlin, 1913).

The material under consideration was collected by Mr. G. F. Hill, Government Entomologist, at, or in the neighbourhood of, Port Darwin, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It consists principally of cosmopolitan species, two only being peculiar to the country.

In the Entomologists' Monthly Magazine, (2) xxiii, p. 85 (1912), I described as Cacodmus ignotus, sp. nov., a female without locality and compared it with Cacodmus villosus, Stål. The Imperial Bureau of Entomology has lately received from Uganda a pair of a Cacodmus, taken from a bat by Mr. C. C. Gowdey, which differs so little from the specimen described as ignotus, that I consider the two examples to belong to that species.

The following notes on Tabanidae describe specimens collected and life-histories investigated during a recent visit to Southern Nyasaland on behalf of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology.

Head, antennae, rostrum, pronotum, scutellum, body beneath and legs black; posterior lobe of pronotum, posterior angular areas of prosternum, and a sub-basal discal suffusion to abdomen beneath, dark sanguineous; intermediate and posterior tibiae broadly annulated with pale luteous; corium and membrane pale grey hyaline, a black spot at apical angle to corium; head shorter than pronotum; antennae with the first joints reaching apex of head, second longest thickened towards apex,

third and fourth subequal in length; pronotum with the lateral margins distinctly pilose, posterior lobe granulose, anterior lobe more coarsely so; membrane extending beyond the abdominal apex, third and fourth subequal in length; pronotum with the lateral margins distinctly pilose, posterior lobe granulose, anterior lobe more coarsely so; membrane extending beyond the abdominal apex.

Monophlebus stebbingi, Green, var. octocaudata, Green, is a large Coccid belonging to the sub-family Monophlebinae. It is found on Mango, Jack Fruit, and species of Ficus, in India, but having, for a Coccid, a long life-history—being but single-brooded—it is rarely a pest. Climatic conditions govern the production of large numbers of individuals, so that outbreaks are irregular, occurring at intervals of a few years.

The following nine new species of Culicidae have recently been received by the Imperial Bureau of Entomology; the types have been presented to the British Museum.

As some confusion exist in the minds of medical men in the Malay States as to the differentiation of the Anophelines ludlowi and rossi* it is probably worth while to give the following comparative notes of the two species, particularly as I believe that the larva of ludlowi has been previously held to be indistinguishabla from rossi, whereas it is in reality very distinct.

Antennae ⅔, basal joint with distinct pecten; serrate and shortly ciliate in ♂. Labial Palpi long, recurved, both joints smoothly but somewhat thickly clothed, with furrow beneath; terminal joint distinctly shorter than median. Maxillary Palpi appressed to haustellum. Haustellum well-developed, scaled. Ocelli absent. Head and Thorax smoothly clothed with appressed scales. Forewings elongatelanceolate, apex blunt-pointed: neuration, 12 veins; 7–8 stalked, 7 to costa; rest separate, 2 remote from 3, 5 approximate to 4; 1 basally furcate. Hindwings 1+, trapezoidal, apex pointed, termen sinuate beneath: neuration, 8 veins; 6–7 very closely approximate toward base; 3–4 connate; 5 parallel to 4. Abdomen moderate. Legs: hind tibiae and the long basal joint of tarsi haired above, laterally compressed.

All the species described in this paper were obtained at Peradeniya, Ceylon, by Mr. A. Rutherford, the Government Entomologist, and were forwarded by him to the Imperial Bureau of Entomology for identification. In every case the types are deposited in the British Museum.

This species was first described by Dönitz from specimens taken in Sumatra. About the same time Theobald had prepared from Malayan specimens the description of an Anopheline species for which he proposed the name ocellatus, but recognising that Dönitz' kochii and his own ocellatus were the same species he published his description as that of Anopheles kochii, Dönitz.