1894-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 45 



to France 48 cents." "Under present conditions a package weighing 

 4>^ ounces may be sent from Canada to Belgium or France as a Ictit-r 

 upon the payment of 45 cents ; as a Parcels-Post package the charge 

 would be 46 and 48 cents respectively; as a 'sample' the charge \voukl 

 be 3 cents," that is, at the rate of one cent for every two ounces. 



Mr. Robert McLachlan, the noted* British authority on the Neuroptera, 

 is the critic in "Nature." While commending the movement, he also 

 regrets that the United States has not a Parcels Post, as he says that the 

 sample-post can only be used for small packets. As shown in the above 

 quotation from Mr. Brook's letter, all parcels-post packages sent from 

 Great Britain, weighing less than three pounds, must pay the three-pounds 

 rate. By far the most of the packages sent by naturalists to each other 

 weigh less than three pounds, and a large number weigh less than one 

 pound, this estimate excluding alcoholic specimens which are unmailablc. 

 Whatever view may be held as to the desirability of the adoption of a 

 Parcels Post by the United States, it must be evident that a Universal 

 Sample Post for specimens of Natural History is of equal, if not, as is 

 our opinion, of far greater importance. 



DIASPIS LANATUS. This injurious scale-insect has hitherto been re- 

 corded from Jamaica (where it is common) and Antigua. Two West Indian 

 localities may now be added : Trinidad ( Port of Spain, on Caricapapaya, 

 found by Mr. Urich ), and Grand Cayman (on oleander, coll. 11. Mac- 

 Dermot, com. Prof. Townsend). It has also been discovered in more 

 than one locality in the United States, as will be described in the annual 

 report of the Dept. Agriculture for 1893. But the more particular purpose 

 of this note is to state that the Antigua record must be canceled, being 

 founded on an error. Long ago Mr. Barber sent me some scales from 

 Antigua on Heliotrope, the 9 scales crowded on the stems, white with 

 brownish exuviae, which were near the edge, but not on it. The shape 

 of the scales was oval, about 4 mm. long and 3 wide. With these were 

 small, white, tricarinate r^ scales. This insect I regarded as a new ( liin- 

 iiaspis, which I named in MS. C. major. Later, on comparing the 9 

 insect with that of Diaspis lanatiis, I found great similarity, although the 

 produced segments on each side of the C. major were fringed with nu- 

 merous spine-like plates a feature not nearly so strongly developed in 

 typical D. /ana/its. On the whole, I concluded that the insect must be a 

 variety of D. /ana/us, and that the trirarinate c? scales found with it did 

 not belong to it. Lately, having sent some of the C. major to Washing- 

 ton, Mr. Howard protests that it cannot be />. /n/m/its ; and on reconsid- 

 ering the matter I believe he is right, and that it is a new Chioiiaspi* alter 

 all. D. /anatns, therefore, is at present unknown in the Lesser Antilles, 

 and C. major is to be added to the West Indian list of" ("or< id;e. It is 

 intended to publish fuller details concerning it at some future time. 



T. D. A. COCKEKELL. 



