MISCELLA NEO VH NO TES. r, 1 1 



this species which I have once before examined and taken for a Cobra 

 puzzles me. T shouhl bo much obliged if you would let mo know what 

 species it is and how tho apparently contradictory 'marks' can be explain- 

 ed. 1 could find no fangs but took it that they might have been knocked 

 out. 



NowsuERA, N.W.F.P., H. R. WATSON, Major, 



\st April 1917. Slst Pioneers. 



[Since writin-i- the above, Major Watson has sent us another Cobra from 

 Nowshera without the cuncate scale. This led us to examine all the specimens 

 of Cobras in our collection and we found, out of 5(; specimens from all parts of 

 India, 2 (from Parachinar and Taunji-yi. Burma) without any cuneate scale. — Eds.] 



No. XXI.— FIGHT BETWEEN VESFA CINCTA, Fabr., AND 

 rOLISTES HEBRAEUtS, Fabr. 



The other day while in the Factory, I saw two wasps ( ] ''. cincfa, Fabr., and 

 P. hebraeuf, Fabr.) so to speak clasped in each others arms (legs). They were 

 in the air but came down to the ground and there rolled about like a pair 

 of wrestlers, each stinging the other for all he knew. After a few minutes 

 the larger wasp Hew away leaving the other, crippled but not defunct, on 

 the ground. 



CHAS. M. INGLIS. 

 Baghowria Ftv, Lahbria Sarai, 

 2nd Aug. 1917. 



No. XXII.— THE INFLUENCE OF THE MONSOONS ON INSECT 



LIFE IN INDIA. 



On the 9th of November, after dark, at about 120 miles W. S. W. of 

 Bombay, quite a number of insects came on board the HospitalShip "Madras." 

 Amongst these I noticed the Sphiugid, Chaerocampa theylia, some undeter- 

 mined Geometers and two species of dragonflies — Diplacodes tfivialis, an 

 insect with a weak flight and Tholymis tillarga, a night-flying species. A 

 moderate N. E. monsoon was blowing at the time which is ordinary for the 

 time of the year. It would be impossible for any of these insects to beat 

 up against the wind for a distance of I'lQ miles, especially for the w'eaker 

 flying species, and it would be equally impossible for any of them to survive 

 the vast distance separating them from the African coast. The paucity of 

 Indian forms amongst the African fauna bears out this latter point. The 

 monsoons must therefore be immensely important factors in keeping down 

 insect life in India, as incalculable numbers must be blown out to sea, 

 eastwards or westwards according to the prevailing monsoon, and there 

 perish. A calculation based on the nimibers coming aboard any ship during 

 the course of a single day, the breadth of beaiti of the ship and the extent 

 of coast- line to windward will give some idea of these numbers and inci- 

 dentally of the wealth of our Indian fauna which can spare such great losses 

 over many weeks without showing any appreciable diminution. 



Hospital Ship " Madras," 

 Bombay, Nov. 1917. 



F. C. FRASEH, Capt., i.m.s. 



No. XXIII.— THE DISTANCE MOSQUITOES CAN FLY. 



In our Journal for 190''5, Vol. XVI., page 36, Patton, in his article on 

 " TheCulicid Fauna of the Aden Hinterland — their haunts and habits " gives 

 the maximum flight of Anopheline Mosquitoes as observed by him at that 

 time as \\ miles. 



