278 [November, 



Hymemjptera near looking in the laller pari of 1901. — The following are the 

 oiilj items of interest I cau find among my captures of British Hytnenoptera this 

 year. I was abroad till July, and for various reasons have not collected steadily 

 since, besides which I have noticed that in this neighbourhood sevei'al species were 

 "over" earlier than usual (probably because of the exceptionally dry summer). 



Ckrt/sls succincta, L., has been quite common here ; I took eleven specimens 

 (males and females) on two days in July. Salius iiotatulus, Saunders, a large and 

 highly coloured male (my first British capture of this species) at Clandon on July 

 loth. Oxybelus mandibularis, Dahlb., ? , at Wisley, August 10th. Crabro gonager, 

 Lep., $ , near Cobliam (Surrey), July 8th ; C. scutillatus, Schev., cJ & $ , at Wisley, 

 July 4th. Prosopis cornuta, Sm., many females, and dilatata, K., two females, all on 

 Daucus carota at Woking, July 20tli to 27th ; but no male of either species ! No- 

 mada atrata, Smith (see Ent. Mo. Mag., 1900, p. 204), several of both sexes in two 

 different localities near Woking, all on Knautia arvemis, along with Andrena celii, 

 Schr., August 15th to 19th. Stelis 8-maculaia, Smith, cJ , at Mayford, near Woking, 

 August 16th ; this capture greatly pleased me, as I had never before taken any 

 species of Stelis in England, though I have had no difficulty in finding them in many 

 localities on the continent. — F. D. Mobice, Brunswick, Woking : September, 1901. 



Meteonis fragilis, Wesm., parasitic on Phalera bucephala. — As no previous 

 record has been made in this country of Meteorus fragilis having been bred from 

 P. bucephala, I think it is worth mentioning, as by it some addition to its history 

 will be noted. On September 21st last, while hunting for oak galls in Warleigh 

 Wood, near Plymouth, I observed a twig of oak denuded of its leaves, from which 

 were suspended about a dozen cocoons. On closer examination I found they pro- 

 ceeded from young larvse, in second moult, of P. bucephala, others who had escaped 

 the attack of M. fragilis, were in the act of putting on their third coats. Four 

 larvae had not changed ; these I removed and placed in a box, by the next morning 

 the parasitic larvte from three had emerged, the fourth I tried to preserve for my 

 cabinet, and in removing the viscera I also removed a parasitic larva. The flies, 

 M. fragilis, duly emerged fx'om their cocoons on October 2nd, barely twelve days 

 from the time they left their host. Wesmael says that the terebra is as long as the 

 abdomen ; Marshall's remarks, " but for this allowance must be made." I can 

 confirm Marshall's statement, " Terebra about half the abdomen ;" it is a trille 

 longer than the 1st abdominal segment, but not so long as the remainder of the 

 abdomen. — Gr. C. Bignell, Saltash : October '3rd, 1901. 



Gynandrous specimen of Halictus quadriciuctus, Fab. — Mr. H. Elgar, of 

 Maidstone, has captured a most interesting specimen of the above always rare 

 species ; it has the head, and apparently the head only, influenced bisexually. The 

 right antenna is long, and formed just like that of a normal <? , tlie left short, and 

 just like that of a normal $ ; the effect produced by this asymmetry being most 

 striking, especially as in this species the antenna) in the <? are unusually long and 

 thick and largely testaceous. The shape of the face is somewhat intermediate 

 between that of a c? and a ? ; Ihe vertex is wide as in the ? , but the clypcus is 

 rather longer than that of an ordinary +' and shorter than a male's ; it is' simple in 



