14 [January, 



its sharp point extends into the angle formed by the median and subcostal nervures, 

 enveloping both stigmata, rendering them conspicuous, and is almost identical with 

 the streak enclosing the stigmata of agaihina. 



The stigmata in nigricans are in contact with two quadrate black spots, the one 

 nearest the base being between the first transverse line and the orbicular, and the 

 other a rhomboidal black spot between the orbicular and reniform stigmata. There 

 is not anything in the nature of a streak or a point. As the pointed streak is 

 constant in the ordinary forms of tritici, there is no doubt that my melanic specimen 

 belongs to that species, but there is not any other feature observable by which it can 

 be identified. — Ben. Blaydes Thompson, 6, Benson Road, Forest Hill, S.E. : 

 November, 1900. 



Macrogaster arundinis in Norfolk. — I well remember the interest which this 

 species — perhaps the most singular and pronounced type of fen insect — excited in 

 my mind when I first began to turn attention to fen collecting, and the delight with 

 which I secured my first specimens at Wicken, in June, 1873. One of these was a 

 $ , and laid me eleven eggs, which Mr. Barrett turned out for me at Ranworth, 

 inserting each separately at the axil of a leaf of reed. Nothing more was seen of 

 them, till in August, 1878, Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher took two specimens on the very 

 spot where these were turned out. Naturally we concluded that these were de- 

 scendants of the ova turned out (by the way, the larva is said to take from two to 

 three years to feed up ; in the former case living through the winter and appearing 

 in June, and in the latter — far more rarely — pupating in the second summer, and 

 coming out in August, so that these might conceivably be a second generation from 

 our ova. I give this statement on the authority of the late T. Brown, of Cam- 

 bridge, but I know of no reason to doubt it). The spot has been repeatedly 

 worked since, occasionally in June, and constantly in August, but no more M. arun- 

 dinis have been seen. 



What, then, was my surprise at taking a single specimen this year (August) in 

 the Hickling Fens ! It seems inconceivable that the brood introduced at Ranworth 

 should have remained invisible there for 20 years, and yet sufiiciently plentiful not 

 only to keep up the stock, but to extend its borders to so far remote a spot, leaving 

 no traces between. 



Of course, till we have fresh details of collecting in the Hickling district the 

 whole must remain as an unsolved problem, but it certainly looks as if somewhere 

 in that locality there existed a colony of this very interesting species. It is very 

 strongly attracted by light, and a little persistent work through the district from 

 June to August would soon give us some data by which to settle the question. 



It is curious that both these Norfolk captures were in August ; whereas in 

 Wicken not one out of twenty would be taken in that month : the time being from 

 the beginning of June to the first week of July.- — F. D. Wheelee, Paragon House 

 School, Norwich : October, 1900. 



[In the Ent. Record, x, p. 231 (1898), Mr. Percy C. Reid, of Kelvedon, notices 

 the capture of three specimens of M. arundinis at light, on August Uth, at " a 

 very considerable distance from Ranworth." — Eds.] 



