10 (January, 



circumcincta, Lop. ; their parasite, CaeUoxyn simplex, Nyl., was also fairly common. 

 Among otiier species taken were Tachytes pectinipes, Linn., Oxybelus iiniglumis, 

 Linn., Crahro Wesmaeli, V. de Lind., and C. peltarius, Schreb., Andrena nigrocenea, 

 Kirb., &c. 



A subsequent visit to the same spot on July 18th yielded Pompilus rufipes, 

 Linn., Prosopis communis, Nyl., and P. brevicornis, Nyl., Sphecodes subquadratus, 

 Sm., Halictus rubicundus, Christ, and H. morio, Fab., Andrena albicrus, Kirb., and 

 A. nana, Kirb. 



Among the Diptera taken may be mentioned Fhilonicus albiceps, Stratiomys 

 chameleon, NemoteJus tdiginosus, and Chloromyia formosa. The beautiful silvery 

 Thereva annulata was abundant all over the sand-hills. 



My best thanks are due to the Rev. A. Thornley, who examined all my speci- 

 mens, and is responsible for the idenlifications.— J. W. Caer, University College, 

 Nottingham : November 5th, 1900. 



Andrena Hattorfiana, Fab., and Nomada armata, H.-Schff., near Oxford. — 

 On June 19th last my friend Mr. W. Holland gave me a Nomada which he had 

 found clinging to a flower of the Bugloss {Echium vulgare) the previous evening 

 near Tubney, Berks, on the Wantage Road, which lies about seven miles west of the 

 city, and which we identified as Nomada armata (subsequently confirmed by Mr. 

 Ed. Saunders). This notable capture made me long to visit the locality on the first 

 opportunity, feeling certaiii that if N. armata was there, Andrena Hattorfiana would 

 be also. So that it was with no small amount of pleasure that I started on July 

 8th to look for both species, in which I am glad to say I was in no way disappointed, 

 for no sooner had I arrived on the ground than N. armata was netted, and then 

 directly after A. Hattorfiana also ; patient work for several hours resulted in a very 

 fine series of the sexes of both species. A. Hattorfiana was taken flying persistently 

 to the flowers of the small white clover (Trifollum repens), with an occasional visifc 

 to a small yellow composite {Crepis virens), though the peculiar colour of the pollen 

 on two or three $ s point to their having gathered it from Knaiitia arvensis, as it 

 was exactly like that being collected from that plant by several ? s captured on August 

 I2th, near Dawlish, S. Devon. It has peculiarities not common to the genus, in that 

 when first alighting on a flower it holds its abdomen almost vertically, showing 

 conspicuously the bright golden hairs on the apical segments, which gives it a very 

 singular appearance ; and in its site for nidification it did not choose the bare spots, 

 but simply burrowed amongst the herbage in a more or less solitary way, and was 

 not gregarious, like labialis, humilis, and others of the genus. Two specimens of 

 the red variety of the ? were taken, and several cJs also show traces of the same 

 colour at the apices of the first and second abdominal segments. 



N. armata, though not so abundant as its host, was not at all rare, frequenting 

 the same flowers and place, but seemed far more " skittish " than is usual with most 

 species of Nomada, flying off with great rapidity on the least alarm. It varied 

 but little in colour, and only a trifle in size. 



A further visit to the same spot a week after (July 15th) only resulted in four 

 A. Hattorfiana and one N. armata being taken, and this after several hours' search, 

 so that one is inclined to think that both species were almost over, a result no doubt 

 hastened by the hot and brilliant weather prevailing at the time. — A. H. Hamm, 

 22, Southfield Road, Oxford : November, 1900. 



