246 f^^P"'- 



contains numerous examples captured among bushes on tto north-west 

 arm of Bouavista Bay. They agree very well with Mr. Scudder's 

 description. 



L}/c(jBna Aquilo, Boisd., Icones, pi. 12, figs. 7 and 8. One specimen 

 only, taken at Rantem. 



Lycodna Lucia, Kirby, Fauna Bor.-Amer., iv, p. 299, pi. 3, figs. 8 

 and 9. Numerous examples of this widely distributed boreal Amerit-an 

 species, taken near Spruce Trees, at Eautem. 



Bartholomew Eoad, Kentisli Town, N.W. : 

 March 1875. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW PULICIDEOUS INSECT FROM CEYLON. 



BY PROF. J. O. WESTWOOD, M.A., F.L.S., ic. 



I hare lately reccired from H. N Moseley, Esq., one of the 

 naturalists of the exploring ship " Challenger," and also from my 

 correspondent, Mr. Green of Colombo, Ceylon, numerous specimens 

 of a minute species of flea, which attacks the domestic fowl in Ceylon, 

 attaching itself firmly by its rostrum, in considerable numbers, around 

 the eyes and neck of the birds, thiis differing from the ordinary flea, 

 which never fixes itself in such a manner as not to be able to disengage 

 itself instantaneously ; and also from the Chigoe, which burrows into 

 the flesh of its victim, hiiman or quadruped. 



This new species is about two-thirds of the size of the common 

 human flea, and is of a more rounded form, the back being much more 

 arched ; its body is much less strongly spiued ; the head is slightly an- 

 gulated in front of the antennal cavities. The proboscis is ordinarily 

 porrected, that is to say, the delicate lancet (which seems to me to 

 represent the labrum, and which has six or seven minute serratures on 

 its upper edge, but which was considered by Mr. Haliday to represent 

 the lingua) and the two elongated mandibles forming the sheath of 

 the former piece (and each of which has four rows, each with fifty-four 

 minute denticulations) are generally stretched out in the same lino as 

 the body ; the triangular maxilla; and the four-jointed maxillary palpi 

 are deflexed, and the lower lip consists of an oblong and very delicate 

 membrane with two flat equally delicate inarticulated plates at its 

 extremity. This latter character separates the species from all the 

 genuine fleas of the genus Pulex, and agrees with that of the Chigoe, 

 forming the genus Sareoj)si/JJi(.9, established by myself many years ago 

 in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, but for 

 which Herr Karsten has improperly taken up the old and most in- 

 appropriate generic name of Bliynchoprion. Hence I propose for this 

 new Ceyloncso flea the name Sarcopsyllus galUnaceus. 

 Oxford : March, 1875. • 



