1900] 175 



The ceconomy of the genus appears to be somewhat obscure, and 

 Nees' notes are quoted by Haliday (Ent. Mag., iii, IM), who also 

 mentions the occurrence of our species in Gevm^wj:—'' Metamorphosin 

 in larvis Coleopterorum xylophagorum subvie verosimile est. Femin^ 

 in truncis csesis putridisque plerumque in veniuntur, obamulantes, et 

 terebra sua aditus ad larvarum habitacula pertractantcs." In the CR. 

 Soc. Ent. Belg. (1SS2, cvi), M. Fremont remarked upon Helcon 

 carinator, Nees, as parasitic upon Leiopus nebulosvs and GaUidium 

 variahiJe. 



Stephens first records it as British and figures both sexes (Illus- 

 trations, Mandib.,vii, Suppl. 4, plate xxxvii, figs. 3 and 4). He says : 

 " I possess a fine pair of these remarkable insects, taken, I believe, in 

 South Wales, and in the collection of the Entomological Club are 

 several examples of both sexes, which, if I mistake not, were captured 

 near Leominster by Mr. Newman." I fancied this collection passed 

 to the British Museum, but a careful search revealed only one very 

 poor ? , under the name Anci/lus (Hal.) annuUcornis labelled " Helcon 

 Dsvgns. 6852," with both antenna? broken, set high on a thick, broken, 

 verdigrised pin, evidently from Desvignes' collection, and probably of 

 Continental origin. 



Marshall, in his 1872 Catalogue, duly accredits it as British, but 

 in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (1899, 185) says of the genus :- "The large 

 black species of Helcon are found in the forests of Central Europe, 

 usually on the trunks of trees or fallen timber, where the females 

 crawl slowly in search of the burrows of longicoru beetles. Kawall, 

 in Courlaud, bred H. ruspator,lj., from the larva of Strangalia quadri- 

 fasciata, L. It is almost certain that Great Britain possesses no 

 indigenous species, and that the occurrences of the following {i.e., H. 

 annuUcornis) in some numbers on one occasion was the result of their 

 accidental introduction ; " and adds, " It is certain no more specimens 

 have since appeared in this country." There is a ? in his collection 

 ex coll. F. "Walker ; and Mr. Fitch has specimens from that of 

 Kaltenbach. 



I can nowhere find a record of the host of Helcon annuUcornis, 

 but 1 should suspect it, from the state of its environment when found 

 in the present instance, to be Grammoptera ruficornis, F., or 

 Pogonochoerus hispidus, Schr., since these are the only lougicorns 

 Kaltenbach instances as feeding upon Hedera helix (Die Pflanzen- 

 feinde, 1872). Of these, the latter (= P. dentatus, Fourc.) is not 

 very common in Suffolk, being recorded only from about Bury and 

 Bentley Woods, and there generally found among Conifcrae. But the 



