VARIATION. 



189 



Guernsey; " 1891, "A List of the Neuroptera of Guernsey;" 1895, 

 "Diptera;" 1896, "The Orthoptera ; " 1897-1900, "Three papers 

 and lists of the Insects of Alderney;" 1902, "The Cicada?;" 1903, 

 "The Coleoptera;" 1904, "The Aculeate Hymenoptera ; " "The 

 Coccidne of Guernsey," " The Insects of Herm and Jethou ; " 1906, 

 " The insects of Sark ;" 1908, "The Insects of Jersey."— F.E.L. 



OLEOPTERA. 



County records of colkoptera.^ — Mr. Donisthorpe makes a very 

 sound suggestion in the last number of the Bcmrd as to the starring 

 of new county records, but some definite basis is needed to make it 

 practicable. Either you must take some definite starting point to 

 work on, such as the lists given in the published volumes of the 

 Victoria CoKnti/ ilistories, or recorders must be recognised for the 

 various counties, to whom reference can be made regarding additions 

 to the county list. Reference to Fowler's Coleoptera is precluded in 

 cases where no list of localities is appended, and one cannot assume 

 the occurrence in any particular county of every species of more or less 

 general distribution. I have been much struck in working up the 

 beetles of Herefordshire (which is almost virgin ground to the 

 coleopterist) by the great rarity or apparent absence of many species 

 which I had always regarded as of general occurrence, and every 

 student of geographical distribution must have had similar experience. 

 I would therefore emphasise the importance of complete county lists, 

 and not merely records of rarities. Mr. Donisthorpe's note accuses 

 me groundlessly of making " vain repetitions." The notes to which 

 he refers are, as the title implies, entirely concerned with Hereford- 

 shire, whereas " the Malvern Hills," of Fowler's Coleoptera, is a 

 Worcestershire locality. It is true that the Herefordshire Beacon is 

 in the county to which its name refers it, but " the Malvern Hills," as 

 usaally so-called, are entirely in Worcestershire, and, moreover, I had 

 taken the precaution to ascertain from Canon Fowler that this was 

 the county to which his records referred. — J. R. le B. Tomlin, M.A., 

 F.E.S., Reading. Maij ISth, 1910. 



Myrmecophilous Coleoptera in Herefordshire. — I paid a short 

 visit to Symond's Yat in April last, in order to work the F. rufa nests 

 on the Great Doward Hill. Beetles were remarkedly abundant, and, 

 with the exception of the Ptilium, all the following were more or less 

 common : — (h-ii/ioda foniriceticola, Miirk., C. Iiaemorrhoa, Sahl., Thiaao- 

 pliila aiKjidata, Gr., Dinanla )niirJ;eli, Kies., MijnneihDiia Iniiiieralia, 

 Gr., Xotothecta jlaripcs, Gr., (Jxediiis brevis, Er., A'ant/Kdinns: atratiiH, 

 Gr., f.eptariniis foriiiiretoriini, Miirk., I'tilinni tin/riiiecop/iilt(iii, All., 

 ]^e)id rop/iili(f> pi/t/inaeiis, L., Monotonia conicicollis, Aub., M. fonnicetonoii, 

 Th. All these ai-e new county records. — Id. 



^E^ ARI AT ION. 



Note on Amblyptilia cosmodactyla, Hu. (acanthodactyla, Tr.), ab. 

 NivEA, Bnks. — In the course of my notice of this beautiful aberration, 

 in Ent. L'ec, xviii., p. 39 (1906), I stated that the two specimens, from 

 which my description was made, were taken by Mr. W. Salvage, 

 " probably in Sutherlandshire, though this is uncertain." At the 



