1912.] 65 



fore-limbs, which had received less attention, were black with dead or dying 

 lice, and within a week, I believe, the animal was clean. — James Watebston, 

 Manse, OUaberry, Shetland : January, 1912. 



Stridulation in British Beduviida; .—It has long been known that two of our 

 British Rcduviidie have the power of stridulation, viz., Beduviws personatus, L., 

 and Coranus subapterus, De Gr. The earliest notice of the former dates 200 years 

 back, and is to be found inEay's " Historia Insectorimi" (1710), while the latter 

 was mentioned by De Geer in 1771. But the apparatus by which the sound is 

 produced does not seem to have been figured till comparatively recently. In 

 the " Annalen " of the Vienna Natural History Museum for 1900, Prof. Handlirsch 

 describes and figures the stridulating organs in each of these species. On the 

 prosternmn, between the anterior coxse, there is a furrow containing a large 

 number of fine transverse striaj, and the rugose tip of the short rostrum is moved 

 along this furrow, crossing the striae at right angles, and thus causing the chirping 

 sound. The autlior further calls attention to the fact that a similar furrow is 

 to be found in almost all sections of the Reduviidse and allied families the world 

 over, except the Henicocephalidx and the Nahidse, and he enumerates ninety 

 genera in which he has observed it ; but whether in all these cases the furrow 

 is transversely striate and, therefore, presumably a stridulating apparatus, he 

 does not state. Our British species included in the groups in question range 

 themselves under four genera, three of which are represented by a single species, 

 while the fourth contains only three. Of these, putting on one side Fygolampis 

 bidentata, Goeze, of which there is only a unique British record, Reduvius 

 personaUis and Coranus suhapterus, as already mentioned, are recognised 

 stridulators, but I do not know that any one has observed a similar habit in 

 either of our three species of Ploiariola ; and yet the apparatus exists in this 

 genus. In P. vagahunda, L., there is, as Handlirsch states, the usual furrow in 

 the presternum, along which the tip of the rostrum travels. I find that this 

 furrow is very deep, and is crossed by four strong slightly curved ridges placed 

 at nearly equal intervals, and the whole area, including the ridges, is covered 

 with fine parallel transverse strise. A very similar arrangement is foimd in P. 

 culiciformis, De G., but it is more difficult to see. Oiir third species, P. 

 baerensprungi, Dohrn, I have not been able to examine. It can scarcely be 

 doubted that this structure, identical in principle Avith the first-named examples, 

 has stridulation for its function, and I call attention to it in the hope that 

 collectors who meet with these insects may be on the look-out for direct 

 evidence of their sound-producing power. — E. A. Butlek, 56, Cecile Park, Crouch 

 End, N. : February 2nd, 1912. 



Psylla albipes, Flor, in Surrey. — I am indebted to my friend Mr. Wm. West 

 for the opportunity of i-ecording this intei-esting addition to the British fauna. 

 Psylla albipes may be distinguished from all our British species by the markings 

 on the elytra ; the latter are hyaline, with brownish-yellow veins, and have a 

 blackish streak on the dorsvim just before the apex of the clavus, as well as a 

 subtriangular blackish spot on vein 2, of which it occupies about lialf the length, 

 and by which it is unequally divided. The species was described by Flor from 



F 



