132 '^^*-^- 



" A remarkable point in connection with the life of the humble bee is, that in 

 many parts of the Colony they do not appear to hibernate at all. In England those 

 insects wliich survive the winter appear about April, and immediately proceed to 

 seek out suitable quarters for the establishment of their homes. In this part 

 (Dunedin) of the Colony the past winter was extremely mild, and the hibernation of 

 the bees was very short. I saw them nearly daily on various flowers right through 

 the summer and autumn up till June 5th. On the following day the weather be- 

 came suddenly cold, and the bees disappeared until August 13th. For nearly a 

 month afterwards the weather remained fine, and night frosts were frequent, yet for 

 a few hours in the middle of the day the bees were seen regularly. Mr. James 

 Gilmore, of Goodwood, about 30 miles north of Dunedin, states that he saw them 

 right through the winter, except in rainy weather. In the middle of July, when the 

 nights and mornings were very frosty, the bees came out in the middle of tlie day if 

 the sun was shining. If this is so in this comparatively cold part of the Colony, we 

 may expect that in those jiarts where frost is unknown no hibernation will take place 

 at all. It is woi'thy of note, however, that only large females survive the winter. 

 This season the first small bees of the new brood were seen by me on November 22nd. 

 The rate of increase of the humble bee has been so great in this Colony, that the 

 question has arisen in my mind as to whether they would not become as serious a 

 nuisance, so far as honey is concerned, as the rabbit has proved to the farmer and 

 squatter. With two exceptions I have never heard of them visiting the flowers of 

 indigenous plants." 



And yet it is only a very few years ago that the first humble bees were intro- 

 duced into New Zealand ! — Eds. 



Lytta vesicatoria, L., and other Coleoptera from Hants and Dorset. — Among 

 some beetles lately sent to me by my cousin, Mr. J. H. Fowler, of Ringwood, Hants, 

 I found the following : — from Ringwood, Hants, a small but very good specimen of 

 Lytta vesicatoria, L. (this species has also been recorded from Hants by Mr. Mon- 

 creaff), also specimens of Carabus nitens, Calosoma inquisitor, Mordella fasciata , 

 Limonius minuttis, Clythra quadripunctata, &c. ; from Sturminster Newton, North 

 Dorsetshire, Eryx ater, Cryptocephalus sericeus, nitidulus, and lineola, Phytoecia 

 cylindrica, Oodes helopioides , Haplocnemus impressus, Hoplia philanthus, and Ho- 

 maloplia ruricola ; and fi'om Wimborne, Dorset, Carabus nitens, Elater sanguino- 

 lenttis, Ehynchites piibescens, Pogonocharus bidentatus, and Trox sabulosus. — W. W. 

 Fowler, Lincoln : April 11th, 1891. 



Heterocerus britannicus, Kuwert : a new species described from Britain. — In the 

 " Verhandlungen der kaiserlich-koniglichcn zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in 

 Wien," December, 1890, p. 535, Herr Kuwert describes a new species of Heterocerus 

 {H. britaymicus) as from " England." Mr. Champion having called my attention to 

 the paper, I wrote to Herr Kuwert, who kindly told me that the single male on 

 which he described the species came to him through M. Bellier de la Chavignerie, 

 labelled " Anglia, Reiche." I then sent him three or four species from my collection, 

 and among them a small species which I received some years ago as sericans from 

 Mr. Lennon, of Dumfries : this proved to be Herr Kuwert's britannicus. "ilLy speci- 

 mens are very small reddish insects, witli obsolete darker spots, but the specimen on 



