1916.] 43 



a large fir wood above, and a small stream not very far off. The field is scattered 

 all over with large rocks, and there is a considerable variety of plants in the field, 

 alders and bog-myrtle along the stream, and patches of bog-myrtle amongst the 

 heather on the moor." — John W. Metcalfe, Ottery St. Mary : Dec. 13th, 1915. 



Psocidae on the wing. — Mr. Hugh Scott's note in the January number of 

 the Ent. Mo. Mag., and his reference to the note by McLachlan, Ent. Mo. Mag., 

 1900, p. 43, induces me to relate my experience with these interesting insects 

 during 1915, when I collected a small lot, chiefly whilst walking to and from 

 my work in the Oxford University Museum. In the mornings I have to leave 

 home at 6.50 a.m. to arrive at my work at 7.30 a.m., and during this 40 minutes' 

 walk I frequently saw numbers of Psocids flying, and might have added many 

 more to my list, if at that time I had been aware of the various papers on 

 this group by McLachlan ; b\it hope to remedy this another season. June was 

 the first month in which I took any on the wing, when I captured Elipsocus 

 unipiinctatus Miiller, and Peripsocus phaeopterus Steph. In July, Psocus sex- 

 punctatus L., was taken, and in September, Stenopsocus stigmaticus Imhoff and 

 Labram, with a species of CaecUius, which as yet I am unable to place. I have 

 specimens bearing the legend " flying " on the cards of all the above species, 

 with the actual dates, all having been taken during the morning walk. When 

 retiu-ning in the evening, although I was always on the look out, I never saw 

 them on the wing, but frequently took them on the tops of the fences, between 

 5.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. McLachlan, in Ent. Mo. Mag., Vol. v, p. 196, states 

 that November 5th was a very late date to flnd such fragile insects as CaecUius 

 atricornis McLach., in the open. On December 26th, 1915, I captured three 

 examples of Ectopsocus briggsii McLach., on a newly erected wooden shed at 

 Thaine Park, Oxon. In a hothouse at the same place a species of CaecUius was 

 seen in all stages on crotons, apparently feeding on the exuviae from a species 

 of Coccid, with which these plants were infested, and there wei^e numerous 

 examples on the wing in the hothouse. — H. Britten, Myrtle View, Windmill 

 Road, Headington, Oxford : January, 1916. 



Seinidalis {Coniopteryx) aleurodiformis Steph., on the iving. — From the last 

 week in Ji^ne until the end of July, Semidalis aleurodiformis Steph., swarmed 

 on the wing in the early morning, flying in and out of a hawthorn hedge, in a 

 lane about a hvindred yards in length. It would have been possible to have 

 taken a score of these insects with one stroke of a net at this particular place. 

 At other parts of my walk a few specimens were seen on most mornings, but 

 they were never in large nimibers. — H. Britten : .January, 1916. 



Another swarm of Chloropid flies. — In the January number of this Magazine 

 p. 18, I recorded the occurrence of an immense swarm of Chloropid and other 

 flies at Babraham House, Cambs., and mentioned the general supposition that 

 this habit is for the purpose of finding winter quarters, This seems to be borne 

 out by the fact that another great swarm has j ust been found in the very act of 

 hibernation at Shouldham Hall, Shouldham, Norfolk. Information of it was 



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