] 58 f July. 



stood out very white. A cold wind drove up from time to time heavy clouds, and 

 although very bright intervals alternated with the frequent snow showers, insects 

 could not be expected to appear on the wing under such conditions. 



Turning stones showed that emergence was taking place, notwithstanding the 

 appai'ently adverse conditions, and many small PerlidcB, of three or four species, 

 were seen. I had also the pleasure of finding two examples of the above named 

 var. of Philopotanius montanus. This was at a streamlet not very far from its 

 sources, and under circumstances somewhat similar to those under which the same 

 variety occurs in South Lanarkshire. The altitude of the locality in the Pentlands 

 is about 1000 feet. It is interesting to know that this pretty form is found in 

 different localities, and observations as to the character of its haunts are desirable. 

 Those known to me are both at some altitude, and not far from where the springs 

 well up, which give rise to the streamlets in which the larvae live. — Kenneth J. 

 Morton, 13, Blackford Eoad, Edinburgh : April 29th, 1899. 



Osmia parietina, Curt., in Perthshire. — In September, 1898, when searching 

 for Coleopfera on a hill-side near Blair AthoU, Perthshire, I discovered several 

 clusters of bee cocoons adhering to the under-sides of stones. A number (perhaps 

 the majority) of the cocoons were open and empty, the inmates having emerged ; but 

 a good many were still closed, and on opening a couple I found in each, in a torpid 

 state, a small reddish bee which Mr. Edward Saunders has since identified for me as 

 the rare Osmia parietina, C\xi't.,& s'^ecies which has not been recorded from any 

 part of Britain for many years. Erom some cocoons brought away with me about 

 a dozen bees (all dead) and two living Chrysids (apparently the rare Chrysis Mrsuta) 

 were extracted this spring. — William Evans, 38, Morningside Park, Edinburgh : 

 June, 1899. 



Stelis octomacidata, Smith, near Maidstone. — On June 3rd I visited the hills 

 above the village of Wrotham in quest of Andrena proximo, of which species I had 

 taken several specimens last year, and succeeded in taking a J and ? ; also Osmia 

 spinulosa, O. bicolor, O aurulenta, and two J and a ? of what I took to be O. 

 leucomelana, but which proved on investigation to be Stelis octomaculata. I 

 visited the spot a fortnight later in company with Mr. F. W. L. Sladen, when we 

 succeeded in taking another $ , and also two ? of 0. leucomelana. — H. Elgae, 3, 

 St. Michael's Terrace, Fant Eoad, Maidstone : June, 1899. 



[This is a most interesting capture, as Stelis octomaculata has not been recorded 

 from Britain since August, 1872, when the late Mr. F. Smith took one at Sidmouth ; 

 he previously recorded it from Hawley, Hants, and as bred by Mr. Thwaites from 

 cells of Osmia leucomelana ; it has also occurred at Exeter. I have myself fre- 

 quently met with Osmia leucomelana, and have always kept a sharp look out for its 

 inquiline, but have never had the good fortune to meet with it. In 1893 the Osmia 

 occurred in some numbers on Woking Common, burrowing, not as it usually does 

 in bramble stems, but in the side of a cart rut, and I made sure of securing the 

 Stelis, but it never put in an appearance, possibly the unusual habitat adopted by 

 the Osmia on this occasion did not suit it. I am much indebted to Mr. Elgar for 

 a fine specimen of this rarity. — E. Saunders]. 



