128 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



district, a parish sadly neglected by those interested in the 

 natural history of Essex, whether their favourite subjects be 

 birds, fishes, or insects. — Henry Layer, F.L.S., Colchester, 

 October 2nd, 1903. 



INSECTS. 

 Calosoma sycophanta, L. — Master R. H. Stevens recently 

 brought up to the museum, and presented to me, a fine specimen 

 of this insect, the rarest, largest, and most beautiful of the 

 British Carabidae, or Ground-beetles. It had been caught at the 

 end of July by his father, Mr. E. Stevens, on the site of a 

 new Church, of which he is the architect, now being built in 

 Half-mile Lane, Northwood, near Pinnar, Middlesex. Mr. 

 Stevens writes that the beetle was crawling on the grass by his 

 temporary office, and at once attracted his attention by its 

 brilliant colours, unlike any insect he had seen before. C. syco- 

 phanta is usually fcund on the coast, and the specimens have 

 been supposed to be immigrants from the Continent ; its 

 occurrence so far inland is, therefore, remarkable and worthy ot 

 note here, although it is not an Essex specimen. Curiously 

 enough, another specimen is registered this month in the Ento- 

 mologists' Record, by Mr. \V. H. Bennett, F.E.S., who found it in 

 August, at Battle, in Sussex, seven miles inland. — W. Cole, 

 September, 1903. 



Sirex gigas at Buckhurst Hill. — Among the curiosities 

 of the gnat visitation about the middle of August was the 

 production to me of a specimen of this insect, which had startled 

 a maid-servant by flying to the light in her kitchen. Her mistress 

 promptly identified it by a picture in a daily paper as one of the 

 "mosquitoes" which had rendered night hideous to them for a 

 week or more. As the Sivex was a fine female, measuring about 

 two inches, with a practicable-looking, sting-like, ovipositor, the 

 ladies' alarm at the possibility of a swarm of such midnight 

 marauders was apparently justified ! — W. Cole. 



^ Locusta viridissima. — A female example of this fine 

 Orthopteron was brought up to the Museum, taken on the banks 

 of the Thames near Purfleet, in August last. This insect is 

 probably far from uncommon on our coast, but is very rarely 

 detected, in spite of its large size ; its colour and habits very 

 effectively favour concealment. — \\'. C. 



