210 



[September, 



1880, other dates were six years or two years ago, but most of the 

 informants stated that it was new to them. Miss Ormerod, in her 

 " Report of Observations on Injurious Insects during 1889," gives a 

 long account of this Coccid and its appearance in Britain, with illus- 

 trations, one of which is from a photograph of a number of the insects 

 in situ on a branch of currant, most of the ovisacs being in pluperfect 

 condition, ruptured and spread out. 



Mr. E. JVewstead, Grosvenor Museum, Chester, has been fortunate 

 in obtaining two perfect males from scales at- 

 tached to black currant stems, sent to him this 

 spring by Mr. G. Parkin, of AVakefield, and he 

 has kindly forwarded a mounted example, descrip- 

 tion and drawings, one of which is here reproduced. 

 The perfect insect, as not unfrequently happens 

 with the Coccidce, does not present salient distinc- 

 tive specific characters, except as to the antennae 

 of ten finely haired joints (fig. 3) ; the 1st short ; 

 2nd longer, subclavate, both stout ; the rest thin, 

 3rd longest of all ; 4th, 5th and 6th shorter, sub- 

 equal ; 7th a little shorter ; 8th and 9th still 

 shorter, subequal ; 10th nearly as long as 7th, with 

 two longer hairs at apex ; on the last five joints 

 the hairs appear to be only thickened at the apex, 

 These proportions differ from those given by Sig- 

 noret for the male of P. vifis, in which the 4th joint is the longest ; 

 thus emphasizing the distinction of the species that he draws from 

 the respective females and the larvae. The male of P. ribesice was 

 unknown to Signoret, and is now noticed for the first time. 



Fig. 3. 



scarcely clubbed 



NOTES ON ERISTALIS TENAX IN NEW ZEALAND. 

 BY W. W. SMITH. 



In last year's Transactions of the N. Z. Institute (vol. xxii, 187), 

 Mr. G. V. Hudson contributes a short paper on the introduction of 

 EristaJis tenax and Musca vomitoria to New Zealand. Mr. Hudson 

 observed the former species for the first time in the Wellington 

 Botanical Gardens, in the early spring (October and November) of 

 1888 ; as the species is now widely dispersed and very plentiful in 

 the south island, some additional observations may interest Diptero- 

 logists. 



Mr. Hudson's remarks remind me of a valuable paper on "Some 



