162 [J"iy. 



copula at Lye Hill on May 23rcl, the female being in possession of 

 prey. The male was hanging by his two anterior legs to a twig, sup- 

 porting both female and prey. The habits of this species, so far as 

 they have been observed, are therefore similar to those of E. livida, 

 opaca, &c'., and they may eventually prove to be identical in other 

 respects. 



My thanks are again due to Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., and Mr. 

 G. H. Verrall, F.E.S., for their kind assistance. 



University Museum, Oxford : 

 June 1th, 1909. 



REMARKS ON AN INJURIOUS CAPSID 



IN TEE COCOA-PLANTATIONS OF WEST AFRICA: 



ALLEGED TO BE A NEW SPECIES. 



BY B. POPPIUS. 

 In .Tourn. Econom. Biol , Til, 1908, p 113, under the heading 

 "Some new and undescribed Insect Pests affecting Cocoa in West 

 -Africa," Mr. W. M. Graham describes, infer alia, a Capsid, " Gen. ? 

 nov., longicornis, n. sp.," from South Ashanti, which has caused 

 injuries to the cocoa-plantations, and the nymph and larva are 

 figured by him, pi. VIII, figs. 1, 2. The description is quite insuffi- 

 cient to identify the species, especially as the author does not even 

 mention the genus. This mode of describing new forms deserves 

 strong disapproval ; it would be far better to secure the assistance of 

 a specialist, instead of thus encumbering the tropical Capsid literature 

 already so abounding in uncertain genera and species The figures, 

 however, make the insect easily recognisable. It is by no means a 

 new species, having been known for some time as an injurious insect 

 affecting cocoa-plantations in West Africa. It was first described 

 from the Congo by E. Haglund in Ofvers. Sv. Vet.-Ak. Forh., 1895, 

 p. 469, under the name Sahlhergella sivgularis, and subsequently 

 figured by Kirkaldy in the Wion, Ent. Zeit , XXII, 1903, p. 3. 

 Three years later, Th. Kuhlgatz, in the Zool. Anz., XXX, 1906, p. 28, 

 named it Deimaiosiaqes contumnx, nov. gen. et spec. The identity of 

 the last-mentioned insect with the genus and species described by 

 Haglund has been proved by O. M. Reuter in the same Magazine, 

 XXX r, 1907, p. 102, and it might therefore have been expected that 

 tlie species should have been known to anybody tolerably familiar 

 with the Capsid literature. 8. singnlaris belongs to the division 

 Bryocoraria. For further details, I must refer to the two articles 

 quoted above, where the species is described at length, and where the 

 injuries caused by it are recorded. 



Helsingfors : May, 1909. 



