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ON A NEW GENUS OF PSYLLIDiE FROM NYASALAND. 

 By Egbert Newstead, M.Sc, A.L.S., &c. 



The remarkable insect herein described belongs to the family PsYLLiDiE, of 

 which relatively few species have hitherto been recorded from Africa. The 

 pupaj (and possibly also the larvas) cover themselves with dense masses of white 

 flocculent or wool-like wax, the separate strands of which are sometimes over one 

 inch in length. These flocculent coverings are arranged together in large patches 

 on both the leaves and stems of the food-plant so that they are thereby rendered 

 most conspicuous. The habit of secreting coverings of white wax is common to 

 many members of this family of the Homoptera ; but the great length to which 

 it attains in this species is quite exceptional and noteworthy. 



Pseudoeriopsylla, gen. n. 



Female : — Head with the frons twice as broad as long, front indentate or 

 slightly cleft ; eyes hemispherical, prominent. Thorax with the pronotum equal 

 in width to the frons, convex. Wings (fig. 13) broadly lanceolate, with a large 

 stigma ; stem of sub-costal vein nearly as long as the upper branch of the 

 cubitus ; radius of sub-costa short, and from it arises a very short supernumerary 

 vein which merges into the costa near the middle. 



Pseudoeriopsylla nyasas, sp. n. 



Female. — Colour of dried specimens pale ochreous bufi' ; mesothorax with two 

 bilateral, elongated and curved blotches of pale brown. Venter of abdomen 

 covered with dense creamy white plates of wax. Antennte fulvous, tips infus- 

 cated. Eyes black, with a faint margin of pale crimson. Legs ochreous buff; 

 tibial spines jet-black. Wings (elytra) (fig. 13) hyaline, broadly lanceolate, costa 



Fig. 1. — Pseudoeriopsylla nyasos, Newst. ; wing (elytron) of female. 



more distinctly arched than the hind margin ; stigma large, upper portions of 

 the periphery black or infuscated ; stem of sub-costa infuscated just below its 

 junction with the cubitus ; there is also a large infuscated area or blackish spot 

 on the margin immediately behind the lower fork of the cubitus ; the tips 

 of the succeeding veins on the hind margin are also infuscated and there are 



