10 [January, 



ATHERIX CRASSIPES, Meio. : A NEW BRITISH DIPTERaN. 

 BY n. W. ANDKEWS, F.E.S. 



While collecting in July last near Ticehurst in Sussex, I took 

 half a dozen specimens of a Dipteron which Mr. Verrall has since 

 kindly identified for me as Atherix crassipes, Meig., an addition to the 

 British list ; he also tells me that there are only a few European 

 records for this species. My specimens were taken flying among 

 some small alder bushes on the banks of the River Rother, and had I 

 known what it was I was catching, I could have taken a considerably 

 longer series, as it was not at all uncommon in that particular locality. 



9, Victoria Road, Eltham : 

 November, 1900. 



Merodon equestris. Fab. — It may be of some interest to note that I found in a 

 newly erected house near Saltash thirteen dead specimens of Merodon equestris, 

 six S and seven $ ; on making enquiries I ascertained that the owner had purchased 

 at a sale room in the town a parcel of imported bulbs, that he deposited them in a 

 glass cupboard for a time ; while there the larvae left the bulbs, turned to pupse, and 

 the flies duly emerged. Not knowing this Dipterous fly, I sent them to Mr. 

 Coryndon Matthews for identification ; he kindly named them, and remarked that 

 he had taken several specimens in his garden at Ernie Wood, near Ivybridge, mostly 

 in one season, and that they varied in colour as much as those I found. These flies 

 are thickly covered with short stiff hairs on the thorax and abdomen, and may be 

 mistaken for small bumble-bees ; four represent in colour Bombus venustus, and one 

 a $ lapponicus, the other eight are rather mixed in colours for good comparison, for 

 no two are quite alike.— G. C. Bignell, Home Park Road, Saltash, Cornwall: 

 November \2th, 19U0. 



Correction concerning Erebia glacialis. — I should like to correct a couple of 

 lines on p. 292, vol. xxxvi. What I believe I said was that the insects shown were 

 very close to the form called melas from Campiglio. This was at one time 

 supposed to be melas, but was proved by Calberla to be glacialis. — T. A. Chapman, 

 Betula, Reigate : December 3rd, 1900. 



Notes on Lepidoptera from Staffordshire. — I have taken one specimen of Vanessa 

 C-album here this season ; it is a great rarity in these parts. Of Colias Edusa I 

 have seen one. Acherontia Atropos has been plentiful in the larva state. Macro- 

 glossa stellatarum has occurred all through the summer ; I took the last at rest in 

 my hall on October 22nd. On July 22iid I took at light a nice specimen of 

 Xylophasia scolopacina ; it is, I believe, the second ever taken in the county. 

 On August 19th I captured one Apamea fibrosa at sugar, being the second that I 

 have secured here. I have found this year that Hadena contigua feeds on larch in 

 the wild state ; Mr. Woodforde beat one larva from it last year, but we both thought 

 that the larva had fallen from an overhanging birch ; I beat out two this year, very 

 late in the season, from an entirely isolated small larch. — Richard Freer, Church 

 Street, Rugeley, Staffordshire: November, 1900. 



