126 tMay, 



to expose themselves, but kept to the imder-sirles of the leaves as much as possible. 

 The fuil i^i'owii larva is not at all unlike that of Tceiiiocampa stahilis, and might be 

 easily overlooked if one was not specially thinking of it. It is, however, of a much 

 brighter green, and is not freckled with whitish-yellow raised dots, like that common 

 species, and, moreover, the anterior segments are more thickened. It is a pity 

 Buckler did not give some sort of account of the habits of the great number of 

 larvffl he reared from the egg.—GmtVASE F. Mathew, Dovercourt, Essex : March 

 16th, 1903. 



Notes on the season and some captures of Diptenr <it Lyndkxwst in 1902. — 

 Several correspondents have informed me that the past year was a bad one in their 

 districts for Diptera, and from my own experience Lyndhurst was no exception in 

 this respect. But two severe frosts in the spring, the second being quite at the end 

 of May, followed by a cold wet summer and autumn were sufficient to account for 

 this. The season was also late and irregular, many species being from a fortnight 

 to a month later than usual, whilst occasionally solitary specimens put in an early 

 appearance and then disappeared again until after their normal time. A few species 

 also made a welcome re-appearance after an absence of several years. It will, how- 

 ever, be marked in my memory as the year when I at last succeeded in taking 

 Microdon nmtahilis, L., for which I had been on the look out since 1897, when 

 Col. Yerbury took several at Matley Bog. I constantly worked over the same 

 ground, so far as I could locate it from the directions he kindly gave me, but it was 

 not until Dr. Sharp showed me the exact spot (some distance from the other) where 

 he took the fly in 1901, that my efforts met with any success. Under his guidance 

 a party of four visited this on Juno 11th, but the day was too dull, and the result 

 nil. Wretched weather then followed, and it was not until the 25th when some 

 really fine hot weather set in that I went there again with the pleasing result of 

 thi'ce netted out of five seen, and on the following day I secured one more, all 

 apparently just out. I then left Lyndhurst, but having informed Dr. Sharp he 

 went there on the 30th with his daughter, who captured four, and knocked down 

 another which was lost. My specimens were taken within a small space outside 

 of which it did not seem to exist, and from this experience and what I have been 

 told, the fly evidently congregates in small colonies where the ground is suitable, 

 and unless the collector comes across one of these isolated patches, a blank day 

 will probably be the result. 



Amongst my captures for the year were 1 Platyiira marginata, Mg., 1 I'./'as- 

 ciata, Ltr., 2 Ceroplatns tipuloides, F., 4 Chrysonottis bipunctatus, Scop., ? , 1 

 Pachygaster orbitalis, Whlbg. (bred from holly bark), 4 Asilits crabroniformis, L., 

 Xaiithandrus comtus, Hai'r., Catabomba selenitica, Mg., 1, Syrphus tortus, O. S., 3 

 Volucella inanis, L., 1 Maltota cimbiclformis. Fin., Criorrhina ranunculi, Pz., 1 

 CalUcera cenea, F., 4 Microdon mutabilis, L., 5 Myopa fasciata, Mg., 2 Echinomyia 

 grossa, L., Servillia ursina, Mg., 1 Trixa grisea, Mg., Spilogaster uliginosa, Fin., 

 S. fuscata, Fin., 2 Neottiophilum prcBustum, Mg., 1, Vhceomyia fuscipennis , Mg , 1 

 Anomeea antica, W., 1 Falloptera saltuum,!^., and I also obtained from Mr. Piffard 

 2 Hypoderrna lineatum taken at Lymington. 



A Correction. — Amongst my captures of Diptera in 1898 (see Ent. Mo. Mag., 



