572 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



when it appears specially to suck at the thick bark of the truuk, 

 particularly where moss or lichen is growing. It also eagerly sucks 

 moisture from bird-droppings, and if these are too dry, apparently 

 moistens them with its own saliva, probing and working about the 

 excrement with the tip of the setse. 



The adults of both sexes are very similar, the ground-colour beino- 

 very pale yellow, the markings dark-brown and black. The basal part 

 of the last segment of the antennje is whitish. (Pi. D.) 



The ova are pale greenish-yellow, of the usual Cimicid-type, laid in 

 batches of about a dozen, touching one another, on bark or the under- 

 side of leaves. (Text fig. 1.) The eggs hatch in about six days, and 

 the first moult ensues in about another four days, prior to which the 

 young nymphs remain, as usual, quiescent over or around the egg- 

 shells, and do not feed. There are four nymphal instars, the nymphal 

 period lasting about a month. When newly hatched, the external 

 openings of the stink glands seem to be closed by a membrane, not 

 being functional till after the first moult. 



The other nymphs and the adults all have a very strong and un- 

 pleasant smell ; this does not, however, exempt the insect from 

 becoming the prey of certain carnivorous bugs, as I have seen a 

 Reduvid sucking Erthesina fullo, whilst a swarm of tiny black flies 

 crawled over the latter, and hovered in the air close around, as they 

 sometimes do over the prey which a Mantis is eating. 



The following points in the progressive development of the nymphs 

 may be considered : — 



The first instar has the general appearance of the same stage in other 

 Cimicid bugs. Dorsally it is rounded, the small head forming, 

 roughly, a part of the lateral contour. The antennae are short, the 

 fourth segment tapering. The legs are stout and subcylindric. The 

 general colouring is black and white, the abdomen suffused discally, 

 except medially around the glandular flaps, with reddish (PI. E., fig. 

 1). A quite diff'erent appearance is presented at the second instar. 

 The contour is oval and the head instead of being rather sunk-iu is 

 elono-ate and placed outside the lateral contour. The general colour- 

 ing is shown in the figure (2), in which also is shown the pale basal 

 half of the fourth segment of the antenna;, which was practically 

 entirely dark in the first instar. The legs are more elongate and show 

 faint signs of dilatation. 



