206 [September, 



spot at Tubney, Berks. In its company were sundry Leptura livida De Geer, 

 and one or two common species of Stenus and Xantholinus. This rare species is 

 an addition to the Berkshire list of Coleoptera. — J. Collins, 74, Islip Road, 

 Summertown, Oxford : J^ily 29th, 1916. 



Another Staphylinid parasitic on a Dipteron. — On page 161 of this volume 

 of the Ent. Mo. Mag. appeared an abstract relating to Aleocliara hilineata 

 Gyll., and Baryodma ontai-ionis Casey, the larvae of which are parasitic on 

 the pnparia of the fly Chortophila brassicae. A larva of Maseochara valida 

 Leconte has also been observed gnawing its way into the puparium of a fly, 

 the Syrphid Copestyluni marginatum (see Coquillet, "Insect Life" (Washing- 

 ton), Vol. iii, 1891, pp. 318-9). To these three species of Aleocharinae must 

 now be added a fourth, Aleochara (Polystoma) algarum Fauvel, which has been 

 found by Mr. G. T. Lyle of Brockenhurst in puparia of the Phycodromid fly 

 Orygma luctuosum, Meigen. Mr. Lyle collected a large number of fly puparia 

 from under decaying seaweed on the beach at Osmington Mills, Dorset, on 

 September 22nd, 1912 ; far the greater number of puparia produced the Orygma, 

 and no other species of fly was bred from among them. Several produced the 

 Braconid Aphaereta cephalotes, and numbers of a small wingless Proctotrupid. 

 As a few puparia were still intact in February, 1913, they were opened, and in 

 two cases were found to contain a dead specimen of Aleochara algarum. 

 Apparently the beetles completed their development, but failed to emerge 

 from the pxiparia in the unnatural surroundings formed by a glass-topped box. 

 Mr. Lyle has kindly supplied the above particulars and also given to this 

 Museum one of the beetles, an erajity puparium, and two of the host flies. — 

 Hugh Scott, University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge : July 2Sth, 1916. 



Note on Tanygnathus terminalis Er. — This insect, rather rare in Europe, has 

 a wide distribution in the tropical and sub-tropical regions, whore it is not 

 uncommon in marshy places. I have recently been able to examine micro- 

 scopically a number of specimens, with the result that I flnd the anterior tarsi 

 possess five joints, and not four as stated in the text-books ; the first two are 

 short, each being a little broader than long, the three following gradually 

 increase in length, and are all longer than bi'oad. The tarsal formula will 

 therefore read 5, 4, 4.— M. Cameron, H.M.S. Cornwall : May \Uh, 1916. 



Black pupae of Abraxas grossulariata. — Among my wild pupae of Abraxas 

 gross^Uariata this year were several of an uniform glossy black colour, i.e., 

 without any trace of the golden rings so characteristic of the pupae of this 

 species. Three of them I put into a cage to themselves, to ascertain whether 

 the imagines would be in any way different, but all three produced only the 

 ordinary type of the moth, although some of the ordinary pupae prodixced 

 some very fine dark var. nigrosparsata. Among the very many thovisands of 

 pupae of this species I have had during the past ten years, I do not remember 

 ever before to have seen this black form. — Geo. T. Porritt, Elm Lea, Dalton, 

 Huddersfield : August 5th, 1916. 



