201 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



MACROCEPHA.LUS ARizoNiGus = uHLERi. — Wiien describing Macro- 

 cephalus arizonicus (Entom. xxxiii. p. 66), I unfortunately overlooked 

 the description of M. uMerl, Handl. Verb. Ges. Wien, 1898, p. 383. 

 I have not now seen that description ; but Mr. Ashmead, at my 

 request, has been so kind as to compare it with my type of arizonicus, 

 which is now in the U.S. National Museum. He writes me that "it 

 agrees exactly in every point, and unquestionably is identical." — T. D, 

 A. Cockerell; Mesilla Park, N.M., April 28th, 1900. 



Eggs of Ceroplastes irregularis (Entom. xxvi. p. 351). — On 

 January 16th, 1900, females of this species, with eggs, were found at 

 Mesilla Park, N. M. The eggs from a single female were counted by my 

 entomology class, and were found to number 1181. — T. D. A. Cockerell. 



DiPLosis PARTHENiicoLA, n. sp. — ? . Length about 2| mm. Dorsum 

 of thorax shiny, black, slightly hairy ; sides of prothorax brown ; 

 scutellum prominent, with four bristles directed backwards ; eyes 

 meeting on vertex ; abdomen raspberry colour, blackish dorsally ; 

 ovipositor long, blackish, the narrow terminal segment light reddish- 

 ochreous ; legs very pale, ochreous-tinted ; antennae very pale, 2 + 12- 

 jointed, joints cylindrical, a little constricted in the middle, short- 

 pedicelled ; halteres pale orange. Emerged March 26th, 1900, from 

 galls on PartheniuDi incanum, collected at the foot of Picacho Moun- 

 tain, Mesilla Valley, New Mexico. Larva orange. Pupa-shell colour- 

 less, with the anterior end dark sepia-brown. Grails at the bases of 

 the leaves, about 5 mm. diameter, woolly and snow-white, like little 

 tufts of cotton-wool. — T. D. A. Cockerell. 



IscHNURA PUMiLio. — I am glad to be able to report that this 

 dragonfly, which disputes with Agrion mercuriale the distinction of 

 being the smallest on the British list, has turned up again, its haunts 

 having been lost sight of for some fifty years perhaps. A short time 

 since, a friend brought me a box of dragonflies for identification, and 

 amongst them were two or three specimens of Ischnura pumilio, which 

 I understand were taken in Norfolk last year. Strange to say, during 

 a short stay in the New Forest at Whitsuntide of this year, I took 

 seven specimens of the same species, five males and two females, both 

 of var. aurantiaca. The insect appears to come on the wing at the end 

 of May or beginning of June, and, judging from the fact that I have 

 often hunted the New Forest locality at the very beginning of August, it 

 must be over by that date. Possibly streams through peat-bogs would 

 be good localities to search for the species, which should be well out 

 by the end of the present month. — W. J. Lucas ; June 14th, 1900. 



HELioTms armigera. — As in other zoological regions where this 

 species occurs, its appearance in New Zealand is also erratic. The 

 present has been an armigera year on the Canterbury Plains, South 

 Island, where the moths have been plentiful during the last two 

 months. They appear to be much attracted bj the flowers of Araujia 

 aibens, by which they are trapped and perish daily in fine weather. I 

 possess some fine large plants of this Brazilian " moth trap," which 

 have bloomed profusely each autumn for six years, but the present is 



BNTOM. JULY, 1900. S 



