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XIII, On the hahits of a species of Ptyelus in Britisli East 

 Africa. By S. L. Hinde. Communicated, with Notes, 

 by Professor E. B. PouLTON, F.R.S. 



[Read June 6tli, 1906.] 



Plate XIII. 



[Mr. S. L. Hinde, in a letter written from Fort Hall, 

 British East Africa, Jan. 12, 1903, gives the following 

 account of the locality and mode of occurrence of an insect 

 which is closely allied to Ptyelns ftaveacens, F., if indeed it 

 is not actually the same species.— E. B. P.] 



" I have started a new station, which ought to be a nice 

 collecting ground. It is perhaps 6000 ft. altitude, on the 

 east of Kinangop * and Sattima, ?'. e. Aberdare Range : the 

 bamboo is only about six or seven miles av^aj. The Bam- 

 boo Forest is about 9000 to 11,000 ft. altitude. Kenya 

 (17,200 ft.) is about fifty miles away, across the Tana 

 Valley. 



" I send you a most interesting insect, which grouped 

 resembles flowers in the imagines and fruit or buds in the 

 larva ; it is a cuckoo-spit we found on the banks of the 

 Chania River (where I have placed the new station); the 

 Chania River is a large one, not marked on any map. The 

 insects were on a large tree, perhaps 40 ft. high, and almost 

 every branch was covered with insects, and there was a 

 continuous drip under the tree like rain from their secre- 

 tions. When within 6 to 10 ft. or more of the insects 

 they looked like flowers and fruit or buds. On the ground 

 there were larva3 and imagines, singly and in groups, that 

 had fallen off the tree. I broke off a branch covered with 

 insects and brought it to the tent. Mrs. Hinde made 

 sketches at once, which we send by this mail. I send you 

 also a box of the insects which have already faded." 



Notes by Professor E. B. Poulton. 



The specimens sent by Mr. Hinde in illustration of his 

 remarks are to be seen in the British Natural History 



* In a letter, dated July 2, 1906, from Fort Hall, Mr. Hinde 

 writes : — " Kinangop on many maps, real name Nandarua (altitude 

 13,000 ft.), is the southern end of the Aberdare or Sattima Range. 

 The insects were found on the Chania River (altitude 5,800 ft.) on 

 the ground that is now Nyeri Government Station, sixteen miles 

 north-east of Nandarua." 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1906. — PART II. (SEPT.) 



