338 FRED. V. THEOBALD. 



black- wings.* Abdomen with a row, on each side, of small pores. Whole insect 

 punctured. Legs dirty ochreous, with dark femora. Cauda black and hirsute ; 

 cornicles cylindrical. Size of body 055 inch. Winged female coloured much like 

 the above. Wing voluminous, with a brownish membrane much punctured. 

 Under side all brown. Rostrum reaching just beyond the third pair of coxae. 

 Expanse of wings 0-19 inch. Body 0'04 inch. These insects stain weak alcohol a 

 fine port-wine red colour." 



This insect is figured in " Indian Museum Notes " (p. 34) under the name 

 Ceylonia thaecola in such a rough way as to be of no value, the ratios of the 

 enlarged antenna! segments do not agree with the description, and the apterous 

 female " disfigurement " has even no cornicles at all. 



However, there is no doubt that this is the Ceylon Tea Aphis and the specific 

 name (heaecola of the text must stand. 



The Belgian Aphidologist, Schouteden, placed the genus Ceylonia as a synonym 

 of Toxoj)tera (Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg., xii, p. 230, 1906), and says : " Kirkaldy cite 

 Ceylonia comme syonyme de Myzns, mais la structure de I'aile est celle de 

 Toxoptera. J'espere bientot pouvoir etudier Fespece decrite par Buckton." 



In the same year Schouteden described a cacao Aphis under the name Toxoptera 

 fheobromae (Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg., 1., p. 38). f Under this name I recorded the 

 Aphid attacking cacao {Theobroma cacao) sent me by the Imperial Bureau of 

 Entomology from Southern Nigeria, Kamerun, French Congo and Uganda, and 

 noted that this appears to be the common cacao Aphid of Africa and was also 

 possibly found in the Belgian Congo (Bull. Ent. Res. iv., Feb., 1914, p. 332, fig. 12). 



During December 1916, Mr. E. E. Green sent me a number of spirit specimens 

 of Aphids taken on tea and cacao from Ceylon and just previously a slide of a 

 tea Aphid from Assam. A comparison of these showed that the cacao specimens 

 were structurally the same as those from Africa (although most were darker in 

 colour) which I had placed as Schouteden's Toxoptera theobromae ; and moreover 

 that the typical Ceylon Tea Aphid (and also that of Assam — the so called Ceylonia 

 theaecola, Buckton — was the same. The only difference is that the specimens 

 from tea stain, as Buckton says, weak alcohol a deep port-wine red, whilst those 

 from cacao give it no coloration at all. This same Aphid was sent me by the Imperial 

 Bureau of Entomology, taken on cof!ee at Kampala, in Uganda, by Mr. Gowdey, 

 in August of the same year ; these specimens had also to some extent stained the 

 alcohol, but not nearly so much as those from tea. I have also received it from 

 cacao in the West Indies. 



From structural characters it seems to me that the common Tea, Coffee and 

 Cacao Aphids (that is, as far as our scanty knowledge goes) are the same, and thus 

 Schouteden's specific name must sink under Nietner's. 



Both on tea and cacao this Aphid was dark in the Ceylon specimens sent in 

 alcohol, but both tubes of specimens, in spite of the staining of the alcohol, 

 contained many pale forms, some still showing a distinct green hue, varying from 

 green to a very deep green. The African specimens from cacao were certainly 



* This is clearly a misprint for " rings." 



t " Un nouvel ennemi du Cacaoyer en Afrique." 



