48 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Ceropales maculata near Nairn. — Last July, while looking 

 for wasps and bees on wild flowers, near Nairn, I observed an 

 insect that I had not seen before. I captured it, and noticed the 

 peculiar sheath for holding its sting separate from the end of the 

 body, and wondered if it was a true stinging insect. I borrowed a 

 book on Hymenoptera, and identified it as a female Ceropales 

 maculata. I sent it to the Royal Scottish Museum, where Mr 

 Grimshaw confirmed my identification, and stated that the genus 

 had not hitherto been recorded from Scotland. It was captured on 

 the flower-head of an umbelliferous plant, when the sun shone 

 brightly for a few minutes, and then clouded for short intervals.— 

 William Taylor. 



[Saunders, in his Hxnicnoptcra Aculeata of the British Islands 

 (P' 75)j stated that this species was "not recorded from Scotland." 

 Since writing Mr Taylor, however, I have ascertained that this 

 statement is not strictly correct, and that there are several more 

 recent records. ISIr Taylor's discovery of this local and interesting 

 insect, however, extends its known range much further to the 

 north. The species is apparently only seen Kiw hot, sunny days. — • 

 P. H. (;.] 



Hylemyia grisea. Fin., in tlie Forth District. — A\ ith 



reference to the very interesting paper by Miss Huie in last month's 

 number on Hyleviyia grisea, Fin., it may be of interest to record 

 that I have taken this fly at Aberfoyle in 1903, and at Polton in 

 1906. At Polton there is (or used to be) a sandy bank not very 

 far from the station where species of Audrena burrow, the widely- 

 spread and common albicrus, Kirb., being in numbers. I remember 

 on various occasions watching flies rise from the ground and follow 

 female bees as they approached their burrows, but unfortunately 

 I am not now certain that Hylemyia grisea occurred at this bank. 

 I have specimens of another parasitic Anthomyiid — which I take 

 to be Chortophila huccata., Fin. — from Polton, and it may have been 

 this species that I saw with the bees. For an interesting note on 

 Chortophila biiccata and Audrena labialis, cf. A. Piffard in JL/it. 

 Mo. Mag.., 1900, p. 190. I may add that my identification of 

 Hylemyia grisea was confirmed by Mr J. E. Collin in 1913. — A. E. 

 J. Carter, Monifieth. 



[In the Eut. Mo. Afag. for 1900, p. 243, there is a note by 

 W. Evans, recording the occurrence of Chortophila Iniccata in 

 association with Audrena fucata in an old quarry near Edin- 

 burgh. — Eds.] 



