55 



his official connection with the Exposition, but was taken on account 

 of his researches in applied Entomology, particularly with reference to 

 their value to French agriculture. This latter honor has been offered 

 to Professor Riley before, but he has previously declined it on the sup- 

 position that an officer of this Government is not allowed to accept 

 such decorations. His acceptance at the present time is conditional, 

 of course, on the permission of this Government. — L. O. H. 



A NEW EAST INDIAN GENUS OF COCCID^E. 



Mr. E. T. Atkinson, of Calcutta, has just published, in the Journal 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Vol. lviii. Part ii, No. 1, 1889), 

 descriptions and figures of a new genus of Bark-lice found at Mung- 

 phu, in Sikkim, on Quercus incarna, Castania India, and C. tribuloides. 

 The insect resembles Pulvinaria except that its larvae have distinct 

 anal tubercles. It is a Hemicoccid resembling the Lecanids in general 

 appearance. The secretion is abundant and close during the larval 

 state. In the second stage it becomes more waxy so as to approach, in 

 appearance, the genus Orthesia, and the mass of wax on the leaves is 

 more like detached or attached plates than threads. 



CANNIBALISM WITH LADY-BIRDS. 



Mr. J. W. Slater, in Scitnce Gossip for July, 1889, states that he has 

 seen the larvae of Coccinella dispar attack the pupae of its own species 

 and destroy them. He has witnessed such instances of cannibalism not 

 merely in a glass box in which he had placed some larva? aud pupae, 

 but on a row of currant bushes where Aphids were swarming. He fears 

 that the Coccinellids are deliberate and habitual cannibals, and that 

 this practice seriously interferes with the multiplication of the species 

 and limits their usefulness as plant-louse destroyers. He has never 

 observed the adults engaged in this reprehensible habit. 



DAMAGE BY THE PEAR MIDGE. 



Rev. E. N. Bloomfield, of Hastings, England, reports in the July 

 number of the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine that considerable dam- 

 age was done to Pears this spring in his vicinity by this insect (Diplosis 

 pyrivora, Riley). 



ICERYA PURCHASI NOT IN FLORIDA. 



The several recent scares concerning the supposed appearance of the 

 Fluted Scale of California in Florida appear, upon the best information 

 which we have been able to secure, to have been founded upon errors 

 in determination. In two instances the common Mealy Bug (Dactylo- 

 pins citri) was the insect mistaken for Icerya, and in one case the insect 

 causing the scare was the Florida "Wax-scale (Ceroplastes fioridensis). 



