ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 241 



has also to be added to the host of insects that have provoked the 

 mildest-mannered horticulturist and arboriculturist to much wrath 

 during the few weeks of this summer. R. SERVICE, Maxwelltown. 



Homalomyia sealaris feeding on Wax. In April and May 

 this fly is a familiar species. It is most often seen in small parties 

 of a score or more individuals flying together in sportive play under 

 trees during the warmest time of day. Under fruit trees in bloom, 

 more especially under plums, it is often conspicuous. In the larval 

 state it feeds on various decaying substances, usually of animal 

 origin, and has been found as an inmate of, and feeder upon, the 

 debris of wasp nests. In the summer of 1897 a small jar of stone- 

 ware that had contained preserves had been filled with fragments 

 of empty honeyc6mb, placed under a bee hive in my apiary, and 

 then forgotten. It was not noticed again until early in April last, 

 when it was taken into an adjoining shed. Shortly afterwards flies 

 of this species were observed to be congregated upon the shed 

 window, and it was found that they were issuing from amongst the 

 old combs in the jar. Careful notes were taken afterwards of the 

 emergence of the flies. Over 600 in all came forth, and these 

 (with the exception of half a dozen H. caniuilaris, and about a score 

 specimens belonging to other dipterous species) were all H. sealaris. 

 They issued from i5th April to 2oth May, and the time was during 

 the morning hours up till about ten o'clock. At first only males 

 were noted, afterwards about equal proportions of both sexes, and 

 during the last fortnight the few stragglers were all females. Taking 

 the whole brood, the proportion of males to females was slightly 

 more than two to one. ROBERT SERVICE, Maxwelltown, Dumfries. 



Cyclops Dybowskii, Lande. This comparatively rare Cyclops 

 was obtained while I was making an examination of the shore of 

 Loch Lomond near Balmaha on the 2ist of June last. I was 

 inclined at first to ascribe this Copepod to Cyclops oifhonoides, 

 G. O. Sars, but a further examination convinced me that it must be 

 Lande's species ; and on comparing notes with my friend Mr. Scour- 

 field, whose recent discovery of Cyclops Dybowskii in England has 

 added another to the rapidly increasing number of British fresh- 

 water Entomostraca, I found that he also was of the same opinion 

 with myself in regard to the Loch Lomond Cyclops. Cyclops 

 Dyboivskii, which is an addition to the list of Scottish freshwater 

 Copepods, is closely related to C. oithonoides ; and it requires careful 

 examination to differentiate the two, as the characters that distinguish 

 the one from the other are microscopic. They appear, however, to 

 be distinct. T. SCOTT, Leith. 



Strebloeerus minutus, G. O. Sars, in the Dhu Loch, near 

 Rowardennan, Loch Lomond. A few specimens of this rare 

 Cladoceran were obtained in a gathering of microcrustacea collected 

 28 E 



