1020.] 13 



Pests of Ahno7id trees in Palestine. — -Mr. Geraon Oarl), of New York, 

 receiitlj' retar.'ied from Palestine, has brought to the Natural History Museum 

 for identiti cation three species of insects which he reports to be causing serious 

 daaiage to the almond crop in that country. Two of these are wood- or bark- 

 boring beetles, viz Ca/modis carhoimria Klug {Buprestidae) and Eccoptoyaster 

 (Sco/i/tus) cniii/f/dali Gu6i\ (Sco/yfidae) ; tlie third is the Aphid Tuberodryubius 

 persicae Cholodk. As the Ccqmodis does not appear to have been recorded as 

 a pest of this tree the following note on the injury caused by it, supplied by 

 Mr. Garb, may be of interest : — " The specimens were collected on almond 

 trees in the colony Gderah, south of Jaffa, Palestine, on July 10th, 1919. 

 Fully and nearly fully grown larvae were found boring between the inner 

 bark and the wood of the underground portion of the stem and of the roots. 

 The borings began at about an inch below the surface and then extended down- 

 wards or into the roots. In many young trees the underground portion of the 

 stem was completely girdled. The pupae were found in an enlarged hollow 

 of the boring, head pointing upward, about two inches below the surface, 

 except in one case where it was lying much deeper. Several adults were 

 found in their pupal chambers, ready to emerge. One adult was collected 

 resting on the stem of an adjoining tree, about a foot or so above the surface 

 of the ground, on the day after the infested tree had been uprooted. The insect 

 was found also in several other localities, notablj' iu the colonies of Ekron, 

 Beer-Jacob and Pishon, and is becoming of great economic importance to the 

 almond industry of Palestine," C. cariosa Pail, and C. tenebrionis L. have 

 been recorded damaging plum and cherry trees in Ualmatia in a similar 

 manner. — K. G. Blair, British Museum (Nat. History), S. Kensington; 

 November 28th, 1919. 



[At Salonika, Besika Bay, and other localities in the Eastern Mediter- 

 ranean, I frequently used to tiud two or three species of Capnodis (teiiebrionis 

 1j. being the most common) on the trunks of old and gnarled apricot and other 

 fruit-trees. The beetles, with the more attractive Chalcophora stiymatica 

 Ualm., were evidently bred in these trees, in which the ravages of their larvae 

 were only too conspicuous. — J. J. W.] 



Further additions to the Coleoptera Fauna of the Scilly Islands. — Of some 

 150 species of Coleoptera collected in the Scilly Islands, for the most part iu 

 July last, twenty-three appear to be hitherto unrecorded from the islands. 

 Many of them are large, conspicuous insects, and particular interest attaches 

 to the fact that one of them is an addition to the lirilish list. The new records 

 for the islands are as follows: — Curabns violaiens L., Harpulus tardus Pz. 

 [ruJimaHus Marsh.), Abax ater Villers [Pterosticlius utriola F.), A. parallelua 

 Dufts. (new to Britain, see atite, p. 7), Cillenns lateralis Sam., Tachypus Jlavipeg 

 L., Gyrimis natntor Scop., Dadobia {Ilomalota) inmiersa Heer, Tachinus sub- 

 terraneus L., Ocypus compressus Marsh., Xantholinus longive7itris Heer, Bledius 

 femoralis Gyll., Oxytelus maritimus Thorns., Silpha obscura L., I'halacriia 

 corruscus Pk., Olibrus affinis Sturm, Apliodius prodromus Brahm., Lema 

 melatiopa Li., Phuedon tuniiduluni Germ., Sphaeroderma cardui GyW., Crepido- 

 dera helxines L., Trachyjihloeus scaber L., Sitones Jlavesceiis Marsh. Of these 

 Tachinus subterraneus and Xantholinus lonyiventris were collected iu Scill}^ and 



