280 ZOOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS OF 1893. 
INSECTS. 
Scale Insects (Cacide.) I have two notes of special 
interest in connection with these insects. According to previous 
observations the males of all the British species do not appear 
before the end of April or the beginning of May. This year, 
however, the males of a species of Pseudococcus, which lives on 
the trunks of various Laburnums along Hough Green, were out 
in numbers on the beautiful warm day of March 22nd. 
The second record is of still greater interest and economic 
importance. The. thorn fence which divides the Roodee from 
the Grosvenor Road, for several years has been infested with 
one.of the large brown ‘‘scales” (Lecanium genevense), and has 
always occurred in considerable numbers; but this year they 
increased to such an enormous extent that they almost covered 
the branches from one end of the fence to the other, and 
although many have been destroyed by accident, yet at the time 
of writing this, they may still be found in sufficient numbers to 
warrant this statement. The season has undoubtedly proved 
favourable to their development, and if they continue in such 
vast numbers, the fence ere long will succumb to their ravages. 
A single female of this species lays over 2,000 eggs; fortunately 
only cne batch are laid in a season, and the young brood for the 
coming year may now be found as small brown specks on the 
bark, amongst the old dead bodies (scales) of the females... This 
species, like many others, secrete a quantity of honeydew, and 
during the past summer the leaves on the fence in question were 
completely blackened with it. 
The Onion Fly (Anshomya ceparum, Bou.) Many specimens 
of this serious pest made their first appearance in my breeding 
cages on April 27th. That this note may be of service to 
economic entomologists, I may say that the pupz were kept out 
of doors in a cool shady place, so that the appearance of the 
flies was not at all premature. Undoubtedly those in a state of 
nature hatched at the same time, and it would be interesting to 
know if this early occurrence of the flies in any way lessened 
the attack on the ‘‘spring sown” onion crop. So far as my 
own experience goes the latter were not so badly infested at 
Ince as in previous years. I venture to think that many of the 
flies died long before the plants were sufficiently large to support 
their ravenous larvze 
Celery Fly, Actdia heraclet, L. ( Tephritis onipordinis, Fab.) 
Swarms of this pretty but destructive little miner made their 
appearance at the same time and under the same conditions as 
the above. This must be a very early record, and unless the 
flies had other plants on which to rear their larvz,.they must 
have perished long before the celery plants were planted where 
they could attack them. I have bred numbers of the small 
Hymenopterous parasite (Adelura api, Curtis), from this pest, 
which I believe has not hitherto been recorded as infesting it. 
