OQA [November, 



Two visits to the Aldermaston district added several new species to my Berk- 

 shire list, one Aphanisticus pusiUus, Ol., and several Chsetocnema subcmrulea, Kuts., 

 both by sweeping in damp sedgy ground, being the most worthy of mention. 

 Three Elater elongatulus, Ol., were turned up in nearly the same district in rotten 

 fir stumps, in just such a place as one usually finds E. balteatus, L. Canon Fowler 

 records it from oak only. 



A few visits to the Wellington College district has been very productive, 

 especially as regards ants'-nest beetles. Five species of Myrmedonia occurred in the 

 nest and runs of one colony of Lasius fuliginosus, and Notothecta confusa, Mark., 

 was taken by packing another nest close by. Nearly thirty specimens of Dinarda 

 dentata, Grav., were taken from a nest of Formica sanguhiea. Aleochara moerens, 

 Gyll., was quite common in decaying fungi under fir trees, and one A. mt/cetophaga, 

 Kr., turned up with it. Mycetoporus lucidus, Er., and M. angularis, Rey, were 

 sifted from moss ; and Acupalpus Jlavicollis, Sturm, was taken by searching the 

 rushes at the edge of the pond. — Norman PI. Jot, Bradfield, near Reading : 

 October Uth, 1903. 



Meligethes exilis, Sturm, in the Isle of Man ; with notes on the flowers it 

 frequents. — At the end of August, 1901, I took a number of specimens of a small 

 black Meligethes in the flower heads of Senecio jacohcea at Glen Wyllin, Kirk 

 Michael, which the Rev. II. S. Gorham kindly named for me as Meligethes exilis, 

 Sturm. During July and August, 1902, 1 met with the same species in flower-heads 

 of Hieraciiim pilosella growing on the cliffs of Spaklrick Bay, Port Erin, and during 

 August and September, and as late as October 11th, they occurred on Senecio 

 jacobcea both at Spaklrick and neighbouring cliffs, near Port Erin. During the 

 present year I have made special observations as to the times of occurrence of this 

 species and the flowers which it frequents. The first specimens I noticed were one 

 or two in flowers of Polygala vulgaris at Spaklrick on May 25th. On May 28th 

 several specimens occurred in flowers of Ranunculus bulbosus at Spaldrick. On 

 June 1st, at the old racecourse at Derbyhaven, I found it abundantly in flowers of 

 Thymus serpyllum buried head downwards in the corollas. On June 3rd, at 

 Spaldrick, it occurred in flowers of Ranunculus bulbosus, Potentilla anserina, Lotus 

 corniculatiis, and Armeria vulgaris, and some days afterwards on Thymus serpyllum. 

 On July 1st I found it on Senecio jacobcea just then coming into flower, and from 

 then up to the present date it has occurred almost exclusively on this plant, except 

 now and again during July and August on Jffieracium pilosella, which did not 

 flower so freely at Spaldrick as in 1902 ; and on one occasion, August 25th, half a 

 dozen examples occurred on a plant of Achillea millefolium. To-day I found a 

 couple of specimens on Matricaria Inodora, a plant which flowers profusely at 

 Spaldrick, and on which I had never before met with it. Meligethes exilis, Sturm, 

 is recorded in Fowler's " British Coleoptera," from the Isle of Man (Rev. R. P. 

 Murray), and Mr. Murray tells me in a letter that it is about forty years since he 

 collected in the Isle of Man, and he does not recollect the locality in which he took 

 this species. It is one of the very few species of Coleoptera in the Isle of Man 

 which have not been recorded as occurring in Ireland, and it is a species we should 

 certainly expect to turn up there, its range in the British Isles being rather of a 

 south-west and westerly nature : Plymouth, Instow, Tenby, Barmouth, Isle of Man, 

 Galloway (Scotland).— J. Habold Bailey, Port Erin, Isle of Man : Oct. 4:th, 1903. 



