INSTITUTE, PUSA, FOR 1919-20 101 



the family Lygaeidae. No bug of this family has hitherto 

 been recorded to suck blood, although many of them are 

 known to harbour Flagellates, either Herpetomonas or 

 Crithidia. The life-history of this bug, from egg to egg, 

 has been worked out. (Hi) A species of Stomoxys, 

 apparently S. oblongata, was found to breed inside the nest- 

 materials of the Mynah and of a kite, (w) Phlebotomus 

 argentipes : Flies of this species were observed to emerge 

 out from the nest-materials which were heaped up in a glass 

 aquarium. On examining the nest-materials no larvae were 

 seen but seven empty pupal cases were met with. Flies of 

 this species were also noticed on several occasions in very 

 large numbers inside the cages of Ostriches and other birds 

 in the Victoria Garden at Bombay, (v) Clinocoris hemip- 

 terus (Cimex rotundatus) was obtained from a Mynah' s 

 nest, which was situated on a wall of the Tara Stable at 

 Pusa. All the stages of the bug including moults were re- 

 covered from the nest. Five pupae, of Hippobosca maculata 

 were also found in this nest, (vi) A Muscid Fly was found 

 to breed in the nests of a bird called Siroli in Bihar. 

 (vii) The life-history of Passer omyia sp., perhaps hetero- 

 chceta (blood -sucking maggots), has been worked out from 

 egg to egg with a plate. One other kind of blood-sucking 

 maggot has lately been obtained from the nest of a crow 

 =at Sohawa." 



Mr. S. K. Sen, Entomological Assistant, submits the 

 following report on his work during the year : — 



" (1) The experiments started with a view to finding 

 out the correspondence, if any, between the toxicity of salts 

 and their position in the Periodic system were concluded. 

 All the chlorides of Group iii (1), i.e., CaCl 2 BaCl 2 and 

 MgCl 2 behaved similarly, their toxicity being small, but the 

 behaviour of BaCl 2 was not quite clear, for in two instances 

 it showed rather pronounced toxicity. CdCl 2 which, along 

 with HgCl and ZnCl 2 , falls under Group ii (2), proved 

 to be highly toxic; ZnCl 2 had the disadvantage of forming 

 hasic precipitate in which condition, however, it appeared 

 highly toxic. With regard to Group i (1), i.e., LiCl, NaCl, 



