1903.] 221 



(1886). Some of my observations differ considerably from those recorded in the 

 above works. 



Public Library, Worksop : 

 July, 190.3. 



[Mr. Houghton has obliged me with a mined leaf of the apricot as referred to. 

 This proves to be particularly interesting, since it solves a recent difBculty. The 

 mines are short and slender, but filled out on both sides of the leaf, and, I believe, 

 agree most accurately witli mines which were sent to me — in far greater numbers in 

 a leaf of apricot— either last year or the year before, and were then supposed to 

 belong to the earliest stage of the life of the larva of some common Tortrix. Now 

 I feel no doubt that they were those of the present species, so ably worked out by 

 Mr. Houghton. 



Mr. Stainton, in the Insecta Britannica, says, under nanella : — " The larva 

 (detected by Mr. Wing) feeds in May on the pear, making a gallery across the 

 flowers, with pieces of the petals and stamens interwoven with silk ;" and this is 

 followed in the " Manual ; " but there is no indication ihat Mr. Stainton was him- 

 self familiar witli the larva, and it is not included in his Natural History of the 

 Tineina. 



Mr. Douglas noticed an incongruity between this statement and his own ex- 

 perience, since he found the moth on apple trees, while he found none on pear. 



Yet we have always associated this species with pear, because it is very certain 

 that here in the suburbs of London, where it is often common, it shows a strong 

 attachment to pear, sitting in the moth state on the branches and trunks of this tree, 

 or if on another species of tree or a paling, in close proximity to some pear tree. 



Anton Schmid, Heinemann, Eossler, and Sorhagen, however, show that while 

 feeding on pear flowers and shoots, it is also mischievous to various species of fruit 

 trees, especially stone fruits— not omitting to attack hawthorn and wild plum. — 



C. G. B.] 



PACHYOASTER MINUTISSIMUS, Zett., A STRATIOMYID FLY NEW 

 TO BRITAIN : WITH NOTES ON P. TARSALIS. 



BT D. SHARP, M.A., M.B., F.R.S. 



In July last year Mr. C. G. Lamb found at Wells a Pachygaster 

 which, on examination, I find to be P. minutissimus, Zett. It is a 

 very distinct species, being smaller than any other, and having the 

 abdomen shining and polished, quite without sculpture. The sub- 

 costal vein turns forwards just beyond the stigma and gives off no 

 cross-vein to the front, so that the species may probably give rise to 

 the formation of a new genus. 



Since Loew published his Eevision of the European Pachygaster 

 in Zeitschr. Ges Naturw., xxxv, 1870, pp. 257-271, only one European 

 species has been described, viz., P. pint (Ferris, Ann. Soc. Ent. France 

 [4], X, p. 208), and Mik, in 1880, has identified this as P. minutissimus, 



