«!i 



88 [April, 



Mag., ser. 2, xxii, 28 (1885), the last-named Lepidopterist gives a 

 descriptiou tliat is intended to be equally applicable to the lai'\"8e of 

 both tumidana and zelleri, which are very similar, and then proceeds 

 to point out the differences between them. He tells us that the larva 

 of the former has the markings dark and very distinct, and frequently 

 shows a strong reddish tinge, whereas, in that of the latter, the longi- 

 tudinal lines are nearly obliterated anteriorly, and the ground-colour is 

 also yellower and greener. 



The imagines appear in July and August, and, as regards the 

 British Isles, records exist of their having been captured in Devon, 

 Dorset, Hampshire (including the Isle of Wight), Kent, Suffolk, 

 Surrey (?),* and Sussex. In spite of this wide distribution in the 

 southern liaK of England, tumidana is apj)arently scarce, as a rule, 

 although it was formerly taken in some ninnbers in the neighbourhood 

 of Forest Hill. It is partial to " sugar," and, so far as I am aware, 

 has never been met with in this coimtry except in the perfect state. 



Norden, Corfe Castle .- 



January 2Sth, 1910. 



A NEW FLEA FROM CALIFORNIA. 



BY THE HON. N. CHARLES ROTHSCHILD, M.A., F.E.S. 



PLATE III. 



Ceratophyllus franciscanus, sj^ec. nov. 



Closely allied to C. ignoUis, Baker (1895), of which it is possibly the 

 Western form. The two insects are readily distingiiislied from each other in 

 both sexes by the modified segments of the abdomen, which we figure. We 

 must, however, note that these sclerites and their bristles are not quite 

 constant. 



Male. — The process P of the clasper is much shorter in franciscanus 

 (fig. 1) than in ignotus (fig. 4) and more triangular. The moveable process P 

 is also shorter in the former species than in the latter. The eighth sternitc is 

 somewhat shorter and proximally broader in franciscanus (fig. 2) than in ignotus 

 (fig. 5) and its apex is differently shaped in the two insects. Whereas this 

 sclerite bears on each side one very strong bristle in ignotus (fig. 5) besides 

 some smaller ones, there are in franciscanus two bristles instead, which, more- 

 over, are much thinner and shorter than in ignotus. 



* In Ent. Mo. Mag., .ser. 2, xiv, 104, and again in Lep. Brit. Isl., x, 11, Barrett 

 says that Forest Hill is situated on the borders of Surrey and Kent, from which one concludes 

 that he was uncertain which of these two counties was the actual scene of the captures that 

 he records I am doubtful, therefore, whether A. tumidana has occurred in Surrey, but it 

 has certainly been taken in Kent, foi- although Meyrick's entry of "Kent "in H.B. Ur. Lep., 

 3S'2 (1SS<5) is probably based on the Forest Hill specimens, Mr. George W. Bird's collection 

 contaiiia four examples that were secured by him, at sugar, in Darenth Wood, August IVtli 

 —21st, 1S75.— E.R.B. 



