10 Th& Irish Naturalist, January, 



with this species in a wood near Tullamore in King's 

 County ; there was also Neoitamus cyanurus, Lw., quite 

 common, but not easy to capture, as it " hawked " after 

 its prey or basked on tree trunks in the hot sun. The 

 Deerpark is in many ways the most interesting locaKty 

 for woodland insects in the vicinity of Dublin, and in spite 

 of the casual visits of entomologists it is a place which 

 should repay further search. 



National Museum, Dublin. 



NOTES. 



ZOOLOGY. 

 Mites as guests in Ants' nests. 



Many animals belonging to diverse orders are known as welcome 

 " guests " in the nests of various species of ants, yet the economic 

 relationship between the ants and their guests is still obscure. In one 

 of the nests o[ Donisthorpea mixta — near Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny — 

 referred to above by Mr. Phillips, I found two species of mites belonging 

 to the well known myrmecophilous genera Antennophorus and Urodiscella. 

 My specimen of the former is a male Antennophorus uhlmanni Hallen : 

 no species of Antennophorus has been recorded from Ireland before. 

 Mr. Halbert (see Clare Island Survey : Acarinida, Proceedings Royal 

 Irish Acad., vol. xxxi., part 39, p. 92), has taken Urodiscella philoctena 

 (Trouess.) in several localities in Ireland in the nests of D. flava, but he 

 is not satisfied that my specimen belongs to the same species. 



National Museum, Dublin A. W. Stelfox. 



Bombus sylvarum in Ireland. 



The late Mr. H. Gore Cuthbert frequently recorded a species of Humble 

 Bee under this name, from various localities in Ireland, generally describing 

 it a,s common. 



Mr. C. B. Moffat, however, has proved to me that the bee Cuthbert 

 intended was that known as Bombus derhamellus, a closely allied species, 

 though in this country coloured quite differently from B. sylvarum. Freke 

 in his list of Irish Hymenoptera Aculeata {Irish Nat., vol. v., 1896). and 

 Sladen in his book on the British Humble Bees (London, 191 7) both give 

 Cuthbert's records under the true B. sylvarum, the latter stating that 

 B. sylvarum is widely distributed in Ireland. Besides Cuthbert's records 



