4Q [February, 



glossa corticina, Er., evidently not uneominon under bark in the neighboui'hood ; 

 Oxytelus clypeonitena, Pand. ; Omalium xeptentrionis. Thorns., two, the first in 

 April, 1901 ; Phlaeocharia subtilissima, Mann., under bark at Wellington College ; 

 Sctjdmwnus poweri, Fowler, under bark at Streatley ; <S. pusillus, Miill., Tricho- 

 pteryx seminitenu, Matth., by sifting the bottom of an old hay stack at Thatcham ; 

 Carcinops l^-striata, Steph., from old bones ; Gnathoncus piinctulatus, Thorns. ; 

 Phalacrus brunnipes, Brit. Cat. ; Meligethes serripes, Gyll. ; 31. oehropus, Sturm ; 

 Smicronyx reichei, Gryll. ; CeuthorrTiynchus urticse, Boh. ; C. euphorhise, Bris. I 

 have only three specimens of the latter taken at Aldermaston in August ; I took it 

 quite commonly by sweeping, but unfortunately mistook it for C. axperifoliarum, 

 Gyll., at the time. — Noeman K. Jot, Bradfield, near Beading : January 5^^,1904. 



The late Mr. P. B. Mason's Collections. — Mr. Sydney Webb has called our 

 attention to an inaccuracy, and also to an omission, in the notice that appeared in 

 our last No. Mr. J. Sang's collection of British Lepidoptera was sold by auction 

 and dispersed before its owner was appointed to the position he subsequently held 

 in Mr. Mason's museum. On the other hand, Mr. Mason purchased privately the 

 once famous old collection formed by Edwin Shepherd of Fleet Street, some time 

 Secretary of the Entomological Society of London. This is important, inasmuch 

 as it concerns a collection of at least historical interest. — Eds. 



Sirex juvencus and 8. gigas in Hertfordshire. — During the past season instances 

 of the mischief caused by these two species of Sirex have been brought under my 

 notice. In September the Instructor at our Technical School, Mr. J. T. Baily, drew 

 my attention to some silver fir wood which had been purchased from a local timber 

 merchant for use in the School. A section of the trunk showed that it was full of 

 galleries made by some wood-boring larvae. I gave instructions for it to be kept for 

 observation, and in a few days a Sirex juvencus $ emerged. A part of the tree had 

 been cut up into planks, and these had been placed one over the other against one 

 of the interior walls of the school building, so that after leaving the cocoon the 

 imago had in several cases to bore through a succession of planks in order to obtain 

 its liberty, making a clean cut tunnel a quarter inch in diameter. A considerable 

 number of these insects, both $ and ? , emerged during September and October, 

 and were captured on the windows when they flew to the light. The wood still 

 contains a number of larvte not fully fed, which will probably develop next year. 

 The tunnels ran in all directions, making the timber quite useless for school work. 

 I have, howcFer, been able to turn the infestation to account, for it has furnished an 

 interesting series of specimens, both of the insects and their borings, which I am 

 utilizing in the preparation of a case for the County Museum, to show the damage 

 done by Sirex juvencus to growing timber. The tree in question grew on the 

 Enssell Estate near here. During the time I had these insects under observation 

 my Co-Secretary at the County Museum brought me a Sirex gigas ? which had 

 been killed in his wood cellar, and a few days afterwards he informed me that quite 

 a number of them, of both sexes, had appeared in the same place. Investigation 

 showed that they were emerging from a heap of fir wood which had been purchased 



