86 [April, 



Secondary parasite. 

 Determined by Mr. Ashmead to be a new species of Holcopelte. 

 I found these in abundance in every stage of development, and on 

 more than one occasion have found them curled up within the body of 

 a ? scale in company with young Coccids. The pupa is generally 

 attached to the inner upper caudal surface of the scale by short white 

 filaments issuing from the ovipositor, and its position then was 

 longitudinal with the scale, the tergum ventrad, and head cephalod of 

 the latter. I have, however, frequently found it unattached — the 

 existence of the caudal filaments not beins constant — when its 

 position varied from the foregoing. The imago is of a beautiful 

 metallic green colour and quite hardy. I regard the attachment by 

 caudal filaments as anomalous in a secondary parasite. 



For identification of the parasites I am indebted to the kindness 

 of Dr. L. 0. Howard and Messrs. Marlatt and Ashmead respectively. 



British Consulate, Panama : 



December 3rd, 1898. 



TRANSMISSION OF NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS ABROAD BY 



SAMPLE POST. 



BY THE RIGHT HON. LORD WALSINGHAM, M.A., LL.D., P.R.S., &c. 



In August, 1890, my friend John Ponsonby, an ardent collector of land shells, 

 wrote to me enclosing for approval a Memorial to the then Postmaster-General, 

 ■which was being got up by Mr. Edgar L. Layard, to urge, on behalf of British 

 Naturalists, that samples and small parcels of Natural History specimens should share 

 the advantages of reduced rates then confined to trade samples sent by post, and point- 

 ing out that such advantages were enjoyed by Naturalists abroad. On March 18th, 

 1891, this Memorial, with 120 signatures attached, was sent to the Postmaster- 

 General, and about a month later permission was given to send Natural History 

 specimens abroad by Sample Post so far as the British Post Office was concerned, 

 but Sir A. Blackwood, writing on behalf of the Postmaster-General (Mr. Raikes), 

 •declined to guarantee their delivery. 



Specimens were thus sent in and after 1891, but in January, 1894, owing to the 

 refusal of the Dublin Post Office to transmit specimens from the Dublin Musaum, 

 which was brought to my notice in a letter from Mr. R. F. ScharfP, I addressed 

 enquiries to the London General Post Office on the subject, and was assured that in 

 practice facilities would still be given, although it was desirable on departmental 

 grounds that the matter should not be publicly stirred. This small concession was 

 not long maintained, for on February 26th, 1894, Mr. Arnold Morley (then Postmaster- 

 General) communicated to me through his Secretary his regrets that the permission 

 of 1891 must be withdrawn. 



From 1894 to 1896 an intermittent correspondence was carried on between the 



