No. 8.] Forest trees. iti 



Diospyros melanoxylon, Roxb., Natural Order Ebenacege, in the 

 Shahapur taluka of the South Thana Forest Division, Bombay 

 Presidency. On plate v, figs. 10 and u, the perfect female insect 

 front and side views, fig. 12, a leg, fig. 13, an antenna, figs. 14 and 15, 

 the gall, all much enlarged, are shown. 



In January, 1901, Mr. Walter W. Froggat, Government Ento- 

 mologist, New South Wales, wrote to the Museum/asking for speci- 

 mens of P. obsoleta, as he was much interested in the family Psyl- 

 lidse, of the order Homoptera. In May, 1901, specimens of P. 

 obsoleta, together with the galls, were sent to him. In his reply 

 dated 20th June, 1901, he notes: — 



"I am sending a note [printed below in full] on the classification of the 

 insect. It does not belong to the genus Psylla, or even to the sub-family. The 

 remarkable point about the insect is the aborted hind pair of wings, in all the 

 species of Psyllidce the hind wings are as well developed as the fore wings, and 

 are even used by some writers in defining species. Were the insects you sent 

 taken out of the galls or allowed to emerge after a full course of development? 

 [ I am sorry I cannot answer this question, as the specimens were sent to the 

 Museum before I joined it as Entomologist. — Ed. J If they were taken out of the 

 galls before they were quite ready, the wings would very likely remain aborted or 

 imperfect; in the specimens you send they consist of small wrinkled flaps that 

 could be the unfolded wings." 



The note referred to above is given in full below :— 



NOTE ON MR. G. B. BUCKTON'S DESCRIPTION 



OF 



"A NEW SPECIES OF PSYLLA DESTRUCTIVE TO F OREST TREES." 



Indian Museum Notes, Vol. v, No. 2, p. 35, pi. v, figs. 10—15 



{1900). 

 In this very brief description of a new Psylla, the author gives 

 none of the generic or specific characters that would give one any 

 idea where to place the insect, if it were not for the drawing of the 

 wings on plate v. He says ,( wings veined as in ordinary Psyllida;," 

 and then calls the species Psylla obsoleta. Now this family of the 

 Homoptera is subdivided into several very characteristic sub-families 

 based on the different forms of wing neuration; in the sub-family, 

 Psyllinse, containing the genus Psylla, the stalk of the cubitus is 

 shorter than the stalk of the subcosta, in the sub -family Aphalarinae 

 the stalk of the cubitus is as long or longer than the stalk of the sub- 

 costa, while in the sub-family Triozinas the stalk of the cubitus is 

 Wanting. 



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