As in the case of the Tabanidae, which have already been described, the material upon which the following paper is based was collected by the author during the Palestine Campaign of 1917–18.

Adult female pyriform, broadest across the meso- and metathorax; cephalothoracic area rounded in front, slightly contracted behind, where there is a well-defined transverse grove; abdomen tapering to the posterior extremity; frons and margins of thorax and abdomen with a few spiniform setae. Antennae rudimentary, each bearing a single long straight seta. Anterior spiracles with a small group of parastigmatic pores (fig. 1, A). Pygidium with a well defined, strongly chitinised, pyriform, reticulated area, the lacunae oval or round, and disposed regularly; the part posterior to the anus, very heavily chitinised, obscuring the lacunae. Circumgenital glands present, consisting of a continuous arch representing the united median and

anterior lateral groups, with the posterior laterals separated by a short space; the anterior laterals show signs of being in two rows. Dorsal pores numerous, comparatively small, circular, arranged in longitudinal series on each side of the pygidium, and extending on to the margins of the abdomen (fig. 1, B). Pygidial margin with three pairs of lobes and numerous angular projections laterad, each lobe notched on the outer side; two pairs of conspicuous claviform paraphyses, each with a large separate circular knob like the dot of an i (fig. 1, C). Length, 1 mm.; greatest breadth about 0·75 mm.

The following descriptions are based on material submitted for determination by Mr. T. Bainbrigge Fletcher, the Imperial Entomologist, Pusa, Bihar.

In March 1920 my attention was called by Dr. F. W. Dootson, University Lecturer in Chemistry, to the fact that a beetle was breeding in numbers in a jar of argol in the Chemical Laboratory of Cambridge University. The insect proved on examination to be the introduced Ptinid, Trigonogenius globulum, Solier, a form related to the household insect, Niptus hololeucus, to which it bears at first sight a slight resemblance.

The genus Locusta, L. (= Pachytylus, Fieb.) includes two of the most destructive swarming locusts of the Old World: the widely distributed L. migratoria, L. (with L. danica, L., and L. migratorioides, Rch. & Frm., as its forms; see below), and the South African L. pardalina, Walk. The literature on the economics, biology and especially on the means of control of these locusts is enormously extensive, but at the same time their systematic arrangement is in considerable confusion, and extremely contradictory opinions as to the mutual relationship of the different so-called species exist among specialists. As a direct consequence of this, the field research and control work of economic entomologists is apt to suffer through the difficulty in getting a particular species properly named, and thus it is often impossible to make a comparison of the records as to the biology and control of the same species in different countries.

♂♀.—Black; the head and rostrum with thin blue-grey scales; the prothorax with rather sparse dull blue scales on the dorsum, the sides entirely clothed with dense metallic green scales; the disk of the elytra as far as stria 4 covered mainly with blackish scaling, more or less interspersed with green scales, which are sometimes denser along the suture; beyond stria 4 the sides are clothed with dense pale green scaling almost to the margin, the inner edge of the green area being very irregular; the lower surface with dense greyish green scaling.

The following paper deals with insect pests of various minor crops and fruit trees in the Colony of Mauritius. The damage caused by most of the pests dealt with is often not very apparent, as many of these crops are not grown extensively, and have not been the object of any special investigation up to the present. If extensive cultivation of any of these should be undertaken, it is clear that there might be created a new environment favourable to increase of the insects, and that the pest problem would then have to be dealt with seriously. Our knowledge of these pests is very deficient, as their life-history and habits have never been studied in detail locally. It is also quite probable that extended cultivation may bring to light many potential pests which at present escape our attention.

Some account of work on the egg-parasites of the coffee bug in Kenya Colony has already been published in a bulletin of the Department of Agriculture of that country.