1916.1 (55 



for this species are " near Edinburgh, Fife, DoUar, etc." ; and Kirkcaldy is 

 mentioned as a locality for it in Fowler's book (Vol. I, p. 104). — William Evans, 

 38, Morningside Park, Edinbuvyh : Fehruary 1st, 1916. 



Oh the distribution of Miris holsatus F., in Britain. — In Saunders' 

 " Hemiptera-Heteroptera of the British Isles," this Capsid is described as 

 " common and generally distributed." This statement, however, has been 

 shown by later investigation to be in need of some qualification, for there is a 

 large area in the East of England from whicli the insect appears to be altogether 

 absent. I have been for some years collecting localities for our British 

 Heteroptera, and I find that so far as Miris holsatus is concerned, there are no 

 records of its occurrence in the large strip of country lying between the Humber 

 and the south coast of Kent, and extending inland to the western borders of 

 Lincolnshire, Rutland, Northants, Beds, Herts, Middlesex, and Kent. This is 

 an enormous area containing 12 counties, and extending about 200 miles in 

 length, with a breadth in some places of about 150 miles. To the absence of 

 records from a few of these counties, it is true, little importance must be 

 attached ; Hemipterists themselves seem to he absent from Rutland, Northants, 

 Hunts, and Beds., and very few observations have in consequence been made 

 upon the hemipterous fauna of these counties. But the others are in a different 

 category. J. E. Mason left on record long lists for Lincolnshir-e ; J. Edwards 

 and C. Morley have very thoroughly worked Norfolk and Suffolk respectively ; 

 W. H. Harwood has given a long list for the east of Essex, and I have myself 

 thoroughly worked much of the western part, especially the Epping Forest 

 district, while W. West and many other entomologists have provided an 

 excellent list for Kent ; the Fryers, father and son, have supplied me ■with a 

 long list for Cambridgeshire, and I have myself worked both Herts and 

 Middlesex. It is scarcely credible that, considering the diligence with which 

 these counties have been searched, in some cases from end to end, the insect, 

 though present, has eluded observation, and the only conclusion that seems 

 warranted is that it does not exist at all in the well-worked coast-counties, and 

 there are strong probabilities as to its entire absence from those forming the 

 row immediately succeeding them inland. 



Outside the limits of this district the insect occurs freely. It is common 

 in some parts of Surrey and Sussex ; I have found it in great abundance in 

 N.E. Yorkshire, where it is the predominating species of the genus, the other 

 two, M. laevigatus and M. calcaratus being comparatively scarce ; Prof. Carr 

 speaks of it as common in some parts of Nottinghamshire; and Marshall 

 records it for Leicestershire. It occurs abundantly in many parts of Wales ; 

 F. Buchanan White says, "it abounds throughout Scotland up to at least 

 1200 feet above sea level." It is also very common in such parts of Ireland as 

 have been examined. 



It should perhaps be remarked that in Edwards' list of the Hemiptera of 

 Norfolk contained in the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' 

 Society, Vol. iii, 1884, the name of this insect does occur, and it is said to be 



F 



