142 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Sutars of Cromarty, from their position, are perhaps less likely to 

 attract them. J. A. Harvie-Brown, Dunipace House, Larbert. 



Mutilla europaea, Linn., at Braemar. It is gratifying to 

 be able to record the recent occurrence of this rare species of 

 Hymenopteron in Aberdeenshire. Among a number of insects 

 lately presented to the Royal Scottish Museum by Mr Arthur 

 Home, the well-known Scottish lepidopterist, I found with delight 

 a fine specimen which I at once recognised as a female Mutilla 

 enropcea, and which Mr Home distinctly remembers taking on Little 

 Craigendall, Braemar, either on the 7 th or 9th of July last year 

 (191 2). I was not aware of any previous Scottish record of this 

 interesting insect until Mr William Evans very kindly drew my 

 attention to a paper by Professor Trail in the Transactions of the 

 Natural History Society of Aberdeen for 1S78, where, on p. 46, an 

 example is stated to have been " once taken in Strathdon." Mr 

 Home's capture is, therefore, a most pleasing confirmation of the 

 occurrence in the Highlands of an insect otherwise apparently 

 confined (so far as Britain is concerned) to the south of England. 

 Percy H. Grimshaw, Edinburgh. 



Recent captures of Callicera yerburyi, Verrall. With 

 reference to the editorial note (ante, p. 117) regarding the number of 

 specimens taken of this rare fly, it may be of interest to record the 

 fact that I went to Nethy Bridge in August 191 1 on purpose to look 

 for it, and though I succeeded in my quest, still, searching for the 

 insect entailed a considerable amount of labour with meagre results. 

 I took a specimen on 9th August in a dead stump where a forest fire 

 had cleared the ground out towards Forest Lodge, and on 1 2th August 

 Mr J. J. F. X. King took another example on a stump of the year's 

 felling between the Tulloch and Boat of Garten roads. Possibly 

 three or four specimens in all were seen during the year, though 

 only on the occasions referred to above could the fly be identified 

 with certainty. The attraction for Callicera seems to be pine 

 sleepers of the felling of the year, and the time of flight to be from 

 the 5th to 21st August. J. W. Yerbury, London. 



Ortheziola vejdovskyi, Sulc a Coccid new to Scotland 

 in the Forth Area. On iSth November 1905, when looking for 

 false-scorpions in crevices of rocks facing the sea at Archerfield Links, 

 near Dirleton, Haddingtonshire, I found several Ortheziines, which 

 did not correspond to any species described in Newstead's British 

 Coccidce. Foreign literature on the subject not being at the time 

 accessible to me, the four specimens taken were put aside, and it 



