i8i>9-] 205 



down, a habit I have often observed in connection with the apterous 

 Micralymma hrevipenne, though of course it is possible that fully 

 winged examples may occasionally occur. The other comparative 

 characters used by him to separate the two species apply perfectly well. 



D. mersa occurs all along the southern coast — Southend, Sheppey, 

 Sandown, Ventnor, Studland (Dorset), Weymouth, Portscatho, Fal- 

 mouth — as well as at Tenb}', Clecthorpes, Hunstanton, the Forth and 

 Clyde districts of Scotland, Ireland, &c. This must be by far the 

 commoner species of the two in Britain. 



D. sinuaticoU is has been taken freely by myself in Sheppey ; by 

 Mr. Walker at Weymouth ; and by Mr. Tomlin at Altcar (Lancashire). 

 There is a very small form of it in Mr. Mason's collection, probably 

 found by Haliday in Ireland. The only British record so far appears 

 to be the one by Canon Fowler (Ent. Mo. Mag., xx, p. 168), this 

 being from Ireland {Haliday). I have also found it on the Frencb 

 side of the channel, at Cancale, Britany, and possess specimens from 

 the He de Ee. 



D. mersa is well Hgured by Haliday, and there can be no mistake 

 as to which species he described. It may be noted that the two light- 

 coloured apterous species of Pliytostis differ in a somewhat similar 

 way in the shape and sculpture of the abdomen. 



The name Diglossa, Haliday (1S37), being preoccupied in Zoology 

 (Wagler, 1832), I here propose to change it to Dif/lotta. 



Horsell, Woking : 



October ISfh, 1899. 



MUTILATION OF CRYPTO PH A GI. 



BY CLAUDE MORLEY, F.E.S., &c. 



"With a neighbour like Mr. W. H. Tuck, of Tostock, one does 

 not forget the denizens of wasp's nests and their doings ; consequently, 

 upon discovering various limbs of some Cri/ptopliagi I recently took 

 were lacking, Mr. E. A. Butler's note upon the subject in the Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., xxxii, 89, was at once re-called. I brought the specimens 

 home in their pabulum, and immediately examined it, dropping the 

 insects into boiling water as they appeared ; I then carded them for 

 examination, and in this way any opportunity for damage from capture 

 must have been excluded. The result was more interesting than I 

 had anticipated, since the following parts were missing, viewed from 

 above : — 



