232 [October, 



they occur in uiuch larger numbers than usual. Their screechnig 

 noise can then be heard on board ship anywhere in the harbour, and 

 the lower parts of the tree-trunks are crowded with the curious 

 horny-looking eni])ty and dry larva-skins from which the perfect 

 insects have escaped. In hot weather they are very active, and not 

 always easy to secure, flying off the tree-trunks readily when 

 approached. Several of the species are of large size, as the green 

 Cyclochila australasice, Auiyot, perhaps the commonest of all; the 

 reddish-brown Thopha saccata, Auiyot, the '"Double Drumuier " of 

 the Sydney boys, so called from the large development of the 

 "opercula" on the under-side of the body of the ^ ; and Psaltoda 

 moerens, Oerm., whose black body, powdered with small patches of 

 white hairs, suggests its popular name of " The Floury Miller." The 

 sweet and rather pleasantly-flavoured white secretion, much appreciated 

 by the boys under the name of " manna," is produced by much smaller 

 insects of the order Homoptera {Eurijmela spp.), rather gaily marked 

 with deep madder-brown, red, and white, which live in companies in 

 all stages of development on the young shoots of the Eucalyptus 

 shrubs. The Hemiptera are very numerously represented in species, 

 aud include some very curious and handsome forms, but few, if any, 

 of large size ; the most singular of all being Ptilocnemis lemur, a 

 small brown and fulvous Coreid bug found not rarely under loose dry 

 bark, with the largely developed hind tibiae furnished with a dense 

 growth of hair, so as to resemble a bottle-brush. Several active and 

 brightly-coloured Eeduviids are met with in the same situation, as 

 well as under stones, and some of them are able to give a severe and 

 painful bite if handled without due caution. A fine Ranatra occurs 

 in stagnant pools, and a species of Halohates is said to be found not 

 rarely on the surface of the water in some of the quiet upper reaches 

 of the harbour, but I never had an opportunity of looking for it. 



By shaking out the dry leafy branches of Eucalyptus, lying on 

 the ground in bushy places — a very productive method of collecting, 

 especially as regards Coleoptera — a i^elatively enormous Thysanopod, 

 Idolothrips spectrum, Haliday (the life-history of which has been ably 

 worked out by my friend Mr. W. W. Froggatt, the Government 

 Entomologist of New South Wales),* may often be obtained in large 

 numbers. Very few, if any, Termite mounds of any size are to be 

 seen near Sydney, but a small species of Termes (lactis, Froggatt) 

 infests nearly every not absolutely fresh log or stump in the bush ; 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1904, yy. 54 et seq. 



