1166 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



Barbadoes " millions/' on the assumption, of course, that the narrative 

 concerning the latter is strictly true. But it is unnecessary to stock tanks 

 in Bengal with Hapochilus, for they are already stocked to a large extent. 

 It was recently stated in one of the daily papers that the waters of some 

 of the colliery districts in Bengal were to be stocked with Haplochilus in 

 order to lessen malaria. Before money is spent on such a venture, it would 

 be well to enquire whether those waters are not already supporting as many 

 small fish as possible. It cannot be dogmatically asserted that every tank 

 in Bengal contains Haplochilus, but fish of this kind are certainly as 

 common and as widely distributed in Bengal as sticklebacks in England. 

 In either case if we were to find that a long existent pond was devoid of 

 small fish, we should strongly suspect that such were unable to live in that 

 particular pond. 



The statement has been made that since the introduction of Haplochilus 

 into the waters of the Zoological Gardens at Alipore, the larvte of mosquitos 

 can no longer be found there. This is a misleading and even a harmful 

 statement, for it might well induce people to spend money in stocking 

 ponds which are already stocked with Haplochilus. Mosquito larvse are still 

 to be found in the tanks at Alipore, and the Haplochilus was there before 

 the time of its alleged introduction. I myself saw it there in 1907. It is 

 sometimes spoken of by observant children as the fish with the white 

 topee. 



R. E. LLOYD, Cam'., I.M.S. 

 Calcutta, 13th February, 1911. 



No. XXV. -NOTE ON THE BUG, ASPONGOPUS JANUS. 



During a recent tour in the Southern districts of the Bombay Presidency 

 1 happened to spend a day (October 29th) in the town of Bagalkot in the 

 Bijapur district, — and very quickly noticed that the streets seemed to be 

 alive with the immature forms of a pentatomid bug — Asponyopus janus. 

 These were crawling about the road in almost every street and lane 

 through which we passed, on the roads leading from the town, and along 

 the railway line near Bagalkot station. Not a single adult form was 

 noticed on the ground in this position, but on examining one of the very 

 common large malvaceous weeds round the town, Abutilon muticum, the 

 adult bugs of the same species, were found in very large numbers. Several 

 individuals were found on almost every plant, feeding on both the young 

 shoots and the older leaves. The results of their feeding on the plant did 

 not appear serious, and only a slight shrivelling and curling up of the 

 younger leaves was noticed. 



The difference between the appearance of the adult and immature 

 insects in this case is sufficiently striking to be figured, and the appearance 



