1920.] 65 



awiiy across the gardon. We are accustomed to see tliis butterfly very early 

 in the year, but probably its occurrence in January is rare. I heard of this 

 ca.se through the " Daily Chronicle," and correspondence with Miss Habgood 

 established the insect's identity beyond any doubt. On February 3rd, a bright, 

 cloudless day, during the moving of some rock-plants in my garden at Cam- 

 bridge, a Vanessa urticae fluttered out of one of them, und flew away. On the 

 evening before, the lightingof a fire in a previously unoccupied room awakened 

 a fine, undamaged V. io. As regards Coleoptera, students who have been col- 

 lecting near Cambridge recently tell me that they have seen several Ajihodius 

 and other forms on the wing. On the afternoon of December 3rd, 1919, an 

 Apliodius (either A. punctato-sulcatus or a species of the same colour) Hew on 

 to my coat in the outskirts of Cambridge. On the evening of December 16th, 

 at my own fireside, a Hylesimis fraxini, doubtless driven out of a burning 

 log, alighted on my face. — Hugh Scott, University Museum of Zoology, 

 Cambridge : February 9th, 1920. 



[A 2 Di/^iscHs inaryinalis was found just outside my house at Horsell 

 yesterday, February 9th, near a rain-water tank, to which place it must have 

 flown. On November 20th, and again on December 4th, I captured a speci- 

 men o{ Acidota crueiitata in the sandpit on Horsell Common, but these insects 

 were probiibl}^ on the move, Avith many Olophrum piceum and Mycetoporus 

 chivicornis, during spells of mild weather. Gonepteryx rhamni was seen on 

 the wing here and at Pyrford on Feb. 17th. — G. C. C] 



Queen Wasps on the iviny in winter. — Major J. E. M. Boyd, K.A.M.C., has 

 given me a queen Vespa vulyaris seen by him on the wing at Northampton at 

 about 2 P.M. on January 15th, 1920. It dropped on to the road and was 

 caught, and the same evening, on the box in which it was imprisoned being 

 opened, the insect was active enough to try to fly out. Professor Nuttall 

 also saw a queen wasp flying in his garden at Cambridge on the afternoon of 

 January 18th, but as he could not secure it the species was not determined. 

 Both the days referred to were very mild. Major Boyd has drawn m}' atten- 

 tion to Mr. Latter's statement that he has seen queen wasps on the wing out 

 of doors in past years on December 26th and February 7th (O. H. Latter, 

 " Bees and Wasps " (Cambridge Manuals of Science), 1913, p. 44). — Hugh 

 Scott : January 2ith, 1920. 



Note on the Douglas Fir Chermes. — In the '•'Entomologist" for July 1919, 

 p. 161, F. V. Theobald records the occurrence in this country of a Chermes on 

 Douglas Fir (Fseudotsuya douylasii), a tree which we have hitherto considered 

 very free from insect attacks. Whilst on a visit to Sussex during .Tuly-August 

 1919, I observed a Chermes on the leaves of young Douglas Firs growing 

 adjacent to a plantation of badly galled Sitka Spruce [Picea siiche7isis). 

 Specimens were forwarded to the Natural History Museum, where F. Laing 

 kindly identified the species for me as Chermes cooleyi var. coxveni Gill. He 

 tells me that this insect in America also attacks Eugelmann's Spruce, and it is 

 possible that the Sitka Spruce takes its place here. Unfortunately, none of the 

 galls were secured at the time, so that this point remains to be elucidated. 

 It seems, however, that the Chermes is establishing itself in Britain and may 

 ultimately become a danger to Douglas Fir plantations here. — A. S. Watt, 

 Forestry Dept., Aberdeen University : January 8th, 1920. 



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