458 Dr. J. Waterston on Cerato'phyllus vagahundus. 



These sclerites were still held in position in potash, but on 

 transferring to glacial acetic acid complete disintegration 

 ensued. 



A point of minor interest may be referred to in passing. 

 The ilea on breaking from its cocoon must have been 

 closely confined. Escape by the micropyle was im- 

 possible, and it is not certain that an exit could have been 

 effected through the aperture made by the mouse's bite. 

 Unfortunately, no measurements of this hole were made 

 before breaking up the stone, and afterwards they would 

 not have been reliable. In any case, the imago pierced 

 the cocoon on the side remote from the larger aperture, 

 and the cocoon wall there remained intact, possibly because 

 the insect was unable to turn round, possibly from the 

 failure of an instinctive reaction to repeat itself. 



The disintegrated flea on being mounted presented all 

 the characters of Ceratop/iylhts vagahundus Boh., a deter- 

 mination in which Dr. K. Jordan thoroughly concurs. 



As this is one of the rarest of bird fleas I have thought 

 it well to bring together the scattered notices of its occur- 

 rence. In the hst of references I have mentioned mainly 

 papers containing definite records. A few additional 

 references will be found in Mr. Rothschild's " Synopsis of 

 the British Siphonaptera," Ent. Mo. Mag., 3rd Series, 

 Vol. I, pp. 96-97, London, March 1915. 



Boheman does not state on what material his description 

 was based. Later his types were discovered in the Riks- 

 museets, Stockholm, without a name (but otherwise with 

 full date), by Wahlgren, who, misled by Taschenberg 

 (1880) and in ignorance of Boheman's paper, in 1903 

 redescribed the species as CerafopJiyllus digitalis. Wahl- 

 gren correctly recognised the affinity of C. digitalis with 

 " Pidex avium Auctt." He also, almost immediately, 

 realised his mistake in having redescribed Boheman's 

 species, and published a corrective note. The only other 

 synonym is Ceratophjllus insidaris Roths, (1906). As 

 will be seen, there are two records from Spitsbergen, one 

 from Switzerland, two from England (Thames Valle}^), 

 and six, more widely scattered, from Scotland. Some 

 specimens from E. Turkestan (2 records q.v. list) are also. 

 Dr. Jordan tells me, to be referred meanwhile to C. vaga- 

 hundus. The species may have been overlooked elsewhere. 

 We have no certain indication up to the present as to its 

 normal host attachment or whether, indeed, it has any. 



