February, 1903] 25 



INSECTS, ESPECIALLY PARASITIC HYMENOPTERA, NOTICED IN 

 THE NEW FOREST IN AUGUST, 1901. 



BY CLAUDE MORLEY, F.E.S., &c. 



No locality in Britain, probably, lias yielded it.s treasures to so 

 large a variety of entomologists as has the New Forest, yet its insect 

 fauna is really very incompletely known ; with the exception of one 

 or tw(j Orders, the Victoria History of Hampshire — if indeed these 

 " histories " may be taken as reliable resumes — only too clearly demon- 

 strates how fragmentary is our knowledge of this district, which yearly 

 teems with visiting collectors and boasts of a few resident specialists. 

 August, 1901, was almost an ideal month at Lyndhurst, which was my 

 head-quarters ; and all kinds of insects were abroad in great force. 

 Although I devoted myself to the Ichneumonid(c , of which no mention 

 is made in the " history," I was also able to pick up a great number 

 of interesting things of other kinds, and I trust that the following 

 account may add another fragment to the county's fauna. 



Lyndhurst in August is no mean rendezvous for brothers of the 

 net and pin, and I owe many of the best Coleopteba taken to the 

 presence of the Eev. H. S. Gorham, Prof. Beare, Mr. Donisthorpe, 

 and Mr. Tomliu. To notice a few of the better beetles in the order 

 of their capture: — Mordellistena brunnea occurred on flowers of 

 Heracleum and Anr/elica ; Monoto7na qitaclricollis and Slpalia ruficollis 

 were swept ; the local Bemhidium tihiale and B. decorum sluiced by 

 streams ; Philonthus succicola found among fungi, B. umhratilis upon 

 a defunct cow, P. splendidulus beneath beech bark in Denny Wood ; 

 Galeruca vihurni on V. opulus in several directions ; Cassida vibex 

 swept from Gentaurea ; Phyllobrotica quadritnaculata was common on 

 Scutellaria at Matley Bog, where, upon AiujvUca flowers, Cetoiiia 

 aurata, Stranf/alia quadr//'asctata,iiud Aromia moachata were not uncom- 

 monly met with ; there also Orchestes iota on Mi/rica //ale, Blectroscelis 

 subcwrulea, and Metoecus paradoxus in a nest of Vespa vulgaris, were 

 found ; the water net brought up Haliplusfulvus, Deronectes depr-cssus 

 and D. 12-pustidutus about Bank ; Lcistotrophus nebulosus occurred 

 in very rotten fungus and also in Miss Chawner's garden ; the local 

 Mycetopliaijus atomarius and Cerylon angustatum in beech fungi ; Apho- 

 dius sticticus was in horse dung ; Bagous ylabrirostris var. nigritarsis 

 on water plants at Gritnam Wood ; and, last of all,l cut a ^i\g Mesosa 

 nubila out of a rotten piece of fallen branch, the middle of which 

 was still hard, in the same locality. The renowned Lymington 

 ISalterus provided only Brgaxis Waterhousei and larvae of Agriotes 

 sordidus. 



