Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/508

438 one specimen of the plant not infested by the gall-fly. The part attacked seems to be always the base of the leaf, or possibly an unopened leaf-bud. The gall-capsules at first are pale yellowish green, with irregular reddish staining. As they mature they become dark green, and are aggregated together into a dense mass, through which the leaves continue to grow, but in a stunted and irregular manner; in some instances abortive leaves or bracts occur between the individual capsules.

When the capsules are mature they burst and expand like the corolla of a flower, eventually showing a bright apricot-coloured interior of velvety texture, and the whole has quite the appearance of a brilliant inflorescence. The colour of the interior of the capsules deepens from primrose-yellow, on first opening, through nankeen-yellow, to a deep apricot, and then fades to brown and black as the mass withers. The mature capsules seem usually to contain one insect and one cast skin each, but sometimes two capsules coalesce internally before bursting, and in one such combined capsule I found two insects and three cast skins.— (Princisu, Wassau District, Gold Coast Colony, West Africa. Lat. 5·54° 57' N.; long. 2·6° 40' W.).

[This insect was described by Walker in 1851, from specimens received from Sierra Leone, under the name of ''Psylla? lata''. The genus in which it should be placed is certainly not Psylla, but that question need not be discussed here. Réaumur, in 1737 ('Mémoires,' t. iii. mém. x. pl. xxix. figs. 17–24), has detailed the history of a species (Anisotropha ficus) which lives on the fig. Recently Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, the Government Entomologist of Cape Colony, has described the ravages of the Citrus Psylla (Trioza sp.), which attacks any kind