1901.] 281 



bush state. I always supposed this must be well known, but I have been interested 

 in it because the leaves of the chestnut are so different from those of the oak, and 

 because the chestnut being an introduced plant in most of our woods, the Attelalns 

 must hare taken on the habit of makitij: use of it comparatively recently. It is one 

 among many proofs that instinct extends, or alters, according to circumstances, and 

 is not absolutely fixed as some writers insist it is. Maurice Maeterlinck has some 

 observations on this subject in Iiis charming work, " La vie des Abeilles." — D. 

 Shaep, Cambridge : September SOtk, 1901. 



Two New Forest Dipterocecidie^. — When in tlie New Forest last summer I 

 noticed the edges of the oak leaves on some of the trees near Gritnam turned over 

 so as to form a habitation for a little larva, which on examination proved to be a 

 Cecidomyiicl. The incisions (or bays) of the leaves were made deeper by a little bit 

 being turned over; how tliis is accomplished I do not know. In the valuable 

 Monograph of Cecidomyiidre at present in course of publication by tlie Abbe' Kieffer 

 in Ann. Soc. Ent. France, this is well figured (vol. Ixix, pi. 38, fig. 12) as Maero- 

 diplosis volvens, Kieff. It does not seem to have been noticed in Britain before. 

 On the same trees certain of the leaves had their prominent parts turned over (the 

 promontories of the leaf instead of the bays). I supposed this to be the work of 

 the same insect, attacking a different part of the leaf, but Kieffer figures it (/. c, 

 fig., 11) as Macrodiplosis dri/ohia, Lw., a species which is included in Mr. Verrall's 

 Catalogue of Dipfera.—lv>. : Octoler C^th, 1901. 



Plafi/pezm at Felden, Herts. — While spending the last few days of September, 

 which were remarkably brilliant and warm, at Felden, with my friend Mr. Albert 

 Piffard, I was astonished at the number of Platypezre we met with. P. cotisobrina, 

 Zett., was somewhat common hovering at, and running in curvatures upon, the leaves 

 of hazel at Black Horse Wood, Ashley Green. P. rufa, Mg., $ , was in abundance, 

 mixed with P. modesta, Zett., flying to, and running beneath as soon as alighted 

 upon, the broad gills of a Heleloma, which rots in five or six days, during which 

 time the insects doubtless oviposit in it ; but we found no males, and one is led to 

 the supposition that the period of incubation is capable of expansion, or that the 

 female is partlienogenetic. This fungus grew in several places on the old stumps 

 of defunct trees ; when P. rufa is stationary it stands high on its legs and looks 

 much narrower than when set. Mr. Piffard took one or two female P. dorsalis, 

 Mg., of which he had taken four examples of the extremely rare male on August 

 29th in the garden plantations on Portugal laurel, in which situations P. hirticeps, 

 Ver., 9 9 , was somewhat common running in circles about the upper-sides of the 

 leaves, both in dull and sunny weather. The bag ended with a single fine female 

 P. picta, Mg., flying high to a hornbeam at Ashley Green, thus consisting of seven 

 species (out of twelve in Britain) secured within a five miles' radius in three days. 

 Mr. Piffard tells me he has upon previous occasions also taken one female P. 

 itifumata, Haliday, here, and in August P. atra, Mg., which latter is the only 

 species with which I had previously met, having beaten a female from birch in 

 Bentley Woods, near Ipswich, on April 28th, 1895, and from these dates there 

 would appear to be two or a succession of broods. He has never met with P.fur- 

 cata, Fall., at Felden. — Clafde Morley, Ipswich : Octoler, 1901. 



