170 J"ne, 



from one of them, and on further investigation, it was found that forty-one altogetlier 

 had left their host, twenty-three of which had spun up in slight white cocoons on 

 the angle formed by the bottom and side of the willow chip box ; eighteen, however, 

 had not sufficient strength, or were injured by the occupants of the box, or may be 

 the box was too dry for them. Of those that formed cocoons, nineteen emerged on 

 May 1st and following days. On reference to Marshall's Monograph of the British 

 BraconidcE, Part II, p. 76, he mentions that " A specimen exists in the British 

 Museum, ticketted in the handwriting of F. Smith, ' the larva from a living Timarcha 

 coriaria ; and one specimen, a ? , in the possession of the author, taken in Nortli- 

 amptonslure.' " — Gr. C. Bignkll, Stonehouse, Plymouth : May l^th, 1891. 



Aspilota concinna, Hal., bred from Ilomalomyla canicularh — I believe there is 

 no record of the breeding of Aspilota concinna. I have, during the present month, 

 reared them from an old wasp's nest, Vespa vulgaris, obtained last September near 

 Plymbridge ; out of the same nest I have also been breeding a groat number of 

 Dipterous flies, Romalomyia canicularis — on this species the little Aspilota was a 

 parasite. — Id. 



Raphidia cognata, Ramb., as a British Insect. — In the No. of this Magazine for 

 Nov. last (1890, p. 304), I published a note under this heading, in which it is stated 

 that I had seen " no recent British specimens." This still holds good ; but there 

 is some evidence to hand showing that at one time it was probably not uncommon. 

 A few weeks ago the collection of British insects formerly belonging to the late Mr. 

 W. Bennett, of Betchworth, was sold by auction. The Neuroptera were purchased 

 by Mr. C. A. Briggs, and amongst tliern were two examples of R. coqnata, one of 

 which he has kindly given me. Mr. Bennett died a long time ago, and probably 

 had done no collecting for long before his death. It may be that scarcely any speci- 

 mens in the collection were less than from 40 to 50 years old. They were all on 

 the characteristic old British pins never seen in comparatively modern collections. 

 But if R. cognata was to be found in those days, why not now also ? 



In the same collection were two specimens of Nothochrysafulviceps, Steph. 

 This occured in almost all the old collections of British Neuroptera, and was 

 apparently not very uncommon formerly. The few British specimens I possess 

 came from old collections, contemporaneous with those that contained R. cognata. 

 I may be wrong, but I do not remember any record of a comparatively recent capture. 

 And yet it is a large and conspicuous " Lace-wing," and collectors of Netti-optera 

 are more immerous now than they were formerly. — E. McLachlan, Lewisham : 

 3Iay, 1891. 



Notes on a British Flea — Typhlopsylla a.isimilis, Tasch. — I have lately got a 

 few specimens of fleas off shrew mice, voles, and conmion mice, and nearly all these 

 appear to me to be referable to T. assimilis, Tascl)., they have only the three genal 

 spines as mentioned by Taschenbcrg, whereas musculi, Duges, has four ; the curious 

 thing is, that I have not met with a single specimen of this latter, which appears in 

 our list, whereas I have obtained fourteen or so of assimilis, which appears to be 

 unrecorded. Taschenbcrg records his assimilis from Sorex vulgaris and Talpa 

 europcea, Mus sylvaticus and Arcicola arvalis. Mine have occurred : four on 



