1877.] 163 



In mentioning the workers of this species in the August number of this Magazine, 

 I made a mistake in saying that they were wrinkled. The specimens I possessed at 

 that time had all been killed in water, and the minute hairs covering the body had, 

 in the process of drying, become stuck to it, looking so exactly like wrinkles that 

 both Mr. Smith and myself mistook them for such, and afterwards, however, found 

 they were punctured and not wrinkled. The females appeared in June, but I could 

 find no males. The labial palpi are two-jointed, and the maxillary two-jointed. 

 The whole insect appears to be more robust than Ponera contracta, the antennae and 

 legs being thicker. The colony has evidently been long established in the conserva- 

 tory, as I have found wings and other parts of the insects among the dust on ledges 

 which have not been disturbed for years. The insects seem very sleepy, never run- 

 ning quickly when disturbed, I therefore thought " tarda " an appropriate name. 

 During June, I found two females drowned in a water-butt some distance from the 

 conservatory. A species of Myrmica inhabits the same bed with the Ponera, and 

 associates with them in perfect harmony. — R. S. Charslet, St. G-iles Road, Oxford : 

 November, 1877. 



Notes on Symenoptera captured in 1877. — I have made the following captures 

 this summer, which I think may be worth recording. 



At Hayling Island, on 30th June, I met with a (J & ? of the rare Prosopis dila- 

 tata, and also several males of P. varipes, all flying round the flowers of brambles ; 

 unfortunately, I did not discover what species I had taken till I got home, or I might 

 probably have secured more specimens. I also took a small ^ IlaUctus, which does 

 not seem to agree with any of the species described as British, and which I hope 

 may prove to be new. 



At Southwold, Suffolk, in August, I took Andrena nigriceps, several $ and two 

 $ , flying about and settling on various flowers in a waste piece of ground near the 

 sea. These males I felt convinced were nigriceps, but I could not make them agree 

 with the description in Mr. Smith's British Aculeate Hymenoptera ; I therefore 

 showed them to him on my return, and he quite agrees with me, that they are pro- 

 bably the true males of nigriceps, and he thinks that the one he has described will 

 prove to be that of some other species. I took another <? specimen of this same 

 insect at Tunbridge Wells, in May. It resembles 3-dentata, ^ , of which at first I 

 thought it was a variety, but may be distinguished from it by the stouter and larger 

 build of the insect, the bright brown pubescence, and the want of the testaceous 

 apex to the abdomen. I also took the following : Andrena 3-dentata, $ , several, 

 A. decorata, commonly, A. denticulata, $ , A. coitana, several ; Halictus ceratus, 

 H. leucopus, <J ; Prosopis punctulatissimus $ , P. perforator, $ ; Cilissa 3-cincta ; 

 Stelis aterrima on Senecio, six specimens ; and Megachile versicolor 1. 



On the 20th October ! in my father's garden at Worthing, under a wall, in the 

 bright sunlight, I took the following : Cemonus unicolor, 3, one of which I detected 

 entering a hole at the top of a stick put in the ground to mark certain plants ; I 

 found the pith of the stick cleared out for some two or three inches, and two or 

 three larvae carefully stored away in it. Odynerus parietinus, Vespa sylvestris, 

 Salictus cylindricus, $ , common, H. albipes, ? , II. leucozonius, ? , H. morio, cf & ? , 

 common, H. mimdissimus, <? & ? , common, Andi-ena bicolor, ? , Osmia cenea, $ , three 

 species of Bombus, aud Apis mellijica. It certainly was an exceptional day, but I 

 should not have thought it possible that so many species would have appeared at 

 such a late time of year. 



