No, 1. ] 



Miscellancotts Notes. 



8S 



attack of a hemipterous insect probably belonging to the species Bysder- 

 cus cingnlalus. Th's insect is allied to the " Cotton stainer ^•' [Di/sdercus 

 suturelluH) of the United States, where ifc is said to puncture the cotton 

 bolls and injure the fibre, also puncturing the rind of oranges and 

 causing the fruit to drop. The remedies recommended for the American 

 species have been, poisoning the insects by traps of sugarcane trash, 

 mixed with Paris green or destroying them when collected upon piles 

 of cotton seed or orange peel, with hot water or kerosine and soap 

 emulsion. It is extremely doubtful, however, to what extent such 

 remedies will be found practicable in India. (The figure is that of 

 Oxycarenus Inguhris, much enlarged.) 



In October 1 890, from the Overseer of the Government Farm, Nagpnr, 



r. 4.i D i-;i • -v were received 



Cotton Buprestid in Is aa-pur. 



^ ^ cotton stalks 



tunneled by the 

 1 a r v se of a 

 Buprestid beetle 

 which has been 

 identified by 

 Mons.Kerremans 

 as a new species 

 of Sphenoptera. 

 which it is pro- 

 posed to call 

 Sphenoptera goS' 

 sypii. The larvae 

 were reared in the Museum and produced imagos in November; the insect 

 was said only to attack the country varieties of Gotten, the American 

 varieties escaping. With regard to the identification of the species 

 Mons.Kerremans writes : — 



" Les especes actuellement decritee de ce genre, et habitant I'Inde proprempiit 

 dite sont au nombre de onze ; ce sont, cerosa Gmel. (= cBiiea F. = tricuspidata OL), 

 indica Cast, et Gory, orientalis Cast, et Gory, perroteti Cast, et Gorj,piilchella Cast! 

 et Gory, angustata Thorns., I afertei Thoras., nigrescens Thorns.., pi sciformis Ihoms., 

 cupriventris Kerr., et cganiceps Kerr, (ces deux deriiiers decrites dans un tout recent 

 memoire snr les Buprestides du Chota Nagpur). Parmi ces especes, il n'en manque 

 que trois a ma collection, ce sont lafertei, piceiformls, et pulchella et le specimen que 

 vous m'avez envoye ne se rapporte ni a aucune de mes especes ni aux descriptions des 

 especes qui me manquent. C'est done une espece nouvelle....Il se distingue desautres 

 especes par sa forme parallele, par sa tete aussi large que le thorax et ses yeux, 

 prominents, par son ^cusson tres grand et cordiforme, et par ses tibias posterieurs 

 incurves. L'espece dont il se rapproche le plus est le sp. angmtata. Thorns., mais celui- 

 ci a le front silJonne, I'^pistome tout autrement conforme, et le dessous est d'un 

 cuivreux brillaut trfes prononce. Sa ponctuation generate est aussi tres difFerente." 



