240 [October, 



larva from the same bush. For some time the hug seemed to leave the cater- 

 pillar severely alone ; bvit after a few days, when the caterpillar had eaten the 

 greater part of the hawthorn provided, I was glad to see it and the bug in 

 close contact, and I hoped that the latter had at last risen to the occasion and 

 attacked its companion. But on looking more closely, I was surprised to find 

 that, although the caterpillar was vmdermost, the tables had been turned, and 

 it was the caterpillar that was devouring the bug ! Almost the whole of the 

 under-side was eaten away, and little more than the dorsal integument remained. 

 I was familiar with the fact that some Orthosid larva3 will, when their natural 

 food fails, show carnivorous tastes and attack other larvsB ; but I was scarcely 

 prepared to find an insect which is usually regarded as most distasteful made 

 the object of attack. It is only fair to add, that the disagreeable scent of the 

 bug, which was at first very pronounced, had almost entirely passed off when 

 the tragedy took place, and possibly this may have made the insect palatable. 

 — E. A. Butler, 56, Cecile Park, Crouch End, N. : September I2th, 1912. 



An additional locality for Psalhis vitellinus, Scholtz. — When this species 

 was introduced as British on p. 60 of the current volume of this magazine, 

 only one locality was known for it — Colesborne, where Mr. Edwards discovered 

 it, and there was some doubt as to whether it occurred there on a coniferous or 

 a decidiious tree. But on June 22nd I found the species in some numbers 

 on spruce firs in the neighbourhood of Burnham Beeches, and the food-plant 

 in this case agrees with continental records. The occiirrence of the insect 

 so far from the original locality suggests the probability that it is widely 

 distributed, though, if so, one certainly wonders how it escaped notice so long. — 

 E. A. Butler : September 12th, 1912. 



Prosopis genalis. Thorns., at Woking. — Only last April Mr. C. H. Mortimer 

 recorded in this magazine several captures of Pr-osopis genalis, Thoms. ( (? t? and 

 $ 9 ), at Weybridge ; and next month followed a Note from Mr. A. H. Hamm, 

 of Oxford, stating that he had specimens of the same species from Berkshire, 

 which he had already recorded in the "Victoria" History of that coiinty. 

 Mr. Mortimer kindly gave me one of his $ ? ; and, as Weybridge is so near to 

 Woking, I was more pleased than surprised (though I was rather surprised 

 also) when on July 10th last I took with my fingers a fine ^ P. genalis from a 

 bramble flower in a large sand-pit hardly a mile from Woking Station. 



It is rather curious that the existence of P. genalis so near our own doors 

 should never have been discovered nor suspected, either by myself or by my 

 next-door neighbour, the late Mr. Saunders, who himself first introduced the 

 species to the British List so long ago as 1879 (from HoUington near Hastings). 

 His captures and those above mentioned are the only ones that I have ever 

 heard of in this countr'y. 



In North Germany, or at least roiind Bremen (according to Alfken), genalis 

 is quite a common species, while its nearest ally, confusa, Nyl., is " very rare." 

 With us the latter is certainly the less rare of the two. In Switzerland both 

 are common ; but Frey Gessner has found genalis chiefly on his higher hunting 



