226 Mr. 8. L. Hinde on the habits of a 
Museum and the Hope Department, Oxford University 
Museum. ‘hey were compared by Mr. C. O. Waterhouse 
and myself with specimens of Ptyelus flavescens, F., in the 
British Museum, and probably belong to this species, allow- 
ing for the change of colour described by Mr. Hinde and 
shown by comparison with Mrs. Hinde’s paintings, repre- 
senting an insect for which /lavescens would be a most 
appropriate name. 
The locality given on Mrs. Hinde’s drawings is Nyeri. 
The native name of the tree appears on the drawings as 
“Muroha.” I have sent Mrs. Hinde’s careful drawing of 
it to Kew, and the Director kindly informs me that it is 
probably a species of Heptapleurum (Araliacex). 
Livingstone observed in Angola an insect evidently 
allied to the Ptyelus painted by Mrs. Hinde.* He speaks 
of it as congregating in small companies of seven or eight 
on the smaller branches of trees of the Fig family. Such 
a group would produce three or four pints of fluid in the 
course of a night. He does not enable us to infer whether 
many companies inhabit a single tree, but the impression 
is produced that the numbers are very much less than those 
described by Mr. Hinde and shown in Mrs. Hinde’s draw- 
ings. Livingstone believed that the fluid was derived from 
the atmosphere and not from the tree and made some 
experiments which appeared to support his opinion. They 
are however unconvincing, while so improbable a conten- 
tion demands for its establishment the most incontro- 
vertible of evidence. 
Dr. David Sharp, F.R.S., gives the following account of 
two species with habits somewhat similar to those described 
by Mr. Hinde :—*In Madagascar it is said that Ptyelus 
goudott exudes so much fluid that five or six dozen larve 
would about fill a quart vessel in an hour and a half t 
... In Ceylon the larva of Macherota quttigera constructs 
tubes fixed to the twigs of the tulip-tree, and from the 
tube water is exuded drop by drop.” (Cambridge Natural 
Mistory, Insects, Pt. IT. London, 1899, pp. 577, 578.) This 
latter fact 1s opposed to Livingstone’s hypothesis, inasmuch 
as the tube would tend to hinder contact with the air. 
The interpretation of the copious exudation is almost 
certainly to be found in the relatively small amount of 
* “ Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa,” pp. 415- 
417. London, 1857. 
tT See also Westwood, Introd. Mod. Class. Ins., Lond. 1840, vol. ii., 
p. 433. 
