NOTES 117 



for insects and other invertebrates. I had not been lone at work 

 when a nest of small black ants was discovered under a stone on 

 the steep slope below the ruins. At the first glance I took them to 

 be Lasii/s niger, a common ant on the adjacent coast ; but a closer 

 inspection showed that I had come upon something much more 

 interesting. Specimens were accordingly secured for determination 

 at home. On comparing them with the description and figure 

 of Tetramorium ccespitum in Saunders's " British Hymenoptera 

 Aculeata," I had no doubt they belonged to that species, and Mr 

 Donisthorpe has kindly confirmed my identification. Only workers 

 were seen, but beyond lifting the stone, which was carefully replaced, 

 I did not disturb the nest. This species is not only an addition to 

 my list of Forth Ants, published in this magazine a year ago, but 

 apparently to the Fauna of Scotland. In England it is common 

 in the south, especially on sandy coasts, but Mr Donisthorpe tells 

 me his most northern records are from Cambridgeshire and 

 Denbigh. The Bass Rock is in Haddingtonshire, i.e., 82 of the 

 Watsonian scheme of counties and vice-counties. William Evans. 



Rare Scottish Plies (Syrphidse). In reference to Mr 

 Carter's note in the April number (ante, p. 94) I have to state 

 that on 30th May 1908 I captured several specimens of Chilosia 

 maculata on the banks of the Tweed at Kelso. Two other good 

 Syrphids which I have taken in Scotland are : Eristalis ceneus, 

 several, on the shore, Glenmorven, Argyll, September 1909, and 

 Callicera yerburyi, a female, Loch Rannoch, Perthshire, 5th August 

 1907. The Eristalis is, I understand, an addition to the Scottish 

 list. J. W. Bowhill, Edinburgh. 



[Mr Bowhill has shown us these specimens. Callicera yerburyi 

 was described by the late Mr Verrall from four females taken at 

 Nethy Bridge, Inverness-shire, by Col. Yerbury in 1904 (Eut. Mo. 

 Mag., 1904, p. 229). Mr Bowhill's seems to be the only other 

 known specimen. Eds.] 



The Burrowing of the Sand -Crab, Portumnus latipes.- 



An unusual specimen of Portumnus lalipes (Pennant) [ = P. varie- 

 gatus, Leach], the small but beautiful Sand-Crab, was captured in 

 February near Cramond, and brought alive to the Royal Scottish 

 Museum by Mr T. Kirkpatrick. Instead of the uniform purplish- 

 white mottled carapace of normal specimens this individual bore a 

 large central blotch of white, shaped like a conventional fleur-de-lis. 

 This blotch might possibly have had protective value, since it 

 resembled empty shells of Mactra and Cardium whicli^wej^, 

 plentiful in the vicinity. 



