1 2 [January, 



lIcnoticHS germcniioo^ Hc'tt. and II. serratits GylL— sijni>ini>iiic(il note, etc. 

 —I have takuii the opportunity of seuding' one of the specimens of this species 

 found in jam io ijondon (one of those recorded in the last, Deceaiher 19:20, 

 Number of tliis Magazine) to Mr. II. S. Barber, of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 

 Bureau of Entomology, Washington, for comparison with N.-Ameiican forms, 

 having long had a suspicion tliat the insect was of American origin. This 

 was suggested by Dr. Everts in 1912 (Tijdschr. v. Ent. Iv, p. 236), as stated by 

 Deville (Bull. Soc. Ent. Er. 1913, p. 228) and myself (Ent. Mo. Mag. 1913, 

 p. 176). Mr. Barber informs me tliat my surmise is correct, and that //. f/er- 

 tiianicus Reitt. (1906) is inseparable from H. californicm Mann. (Bull. Mosc. 

 xvi, p. 256, 1843), the latter having been redescribed at length by Casey in 

 1900 (Ji)urn. N. York Ent. Soc. viii, p. 101). 3Ioreover, he has sent a specimen 

 of H. californicus, found in dried Iruit at Sonoma, California, and several of 

 tlie Ilolarctic H. serratus Gyll. (= raramecosonia deutivulatd Lee. 1850), taken 

 at Marquette, Michigan, for examination, these insects agreeing with our 

 H. //rniiiiiiicHsundi H, serratus res])ectively.* My eldest son, II. G. Chan)pion, 

 met with both species in the Western States in 1915, H. californicus at Ash- 

 land, Oregon, and H. serratus at Missoula, Montana, these specimens having 

 been overlooked by me till now. There cmu be no doubt that H. californicus 

 has be^'u imported from the United States into Holland, Britain, etc., in dried 

 fruit (apricots, etc.), some of wliich is 5>robably converted into jam soon after 

 its arrival. It may, however, attack the mould {Earotium herbariorujn Link. 

 — Asper()illus (jlaucus Link.) often found upon the surface of the jam and not 

 the jam itself.— C. C. Champion, Ilorsell : December 8th, 1920. 



J room infested with Lathridiidae. — Since the discovery of Luthridius 

 her(/rothi Reitt. in this country, Coleopterists have watched its spread as 

 shown by records from various localities, but I think the following note will 

 be of special interest :— On October 1st of this year Mr. J. Musham, F.E.S., 

 sent me some small Coleoptera, swept up in a room by an anxious housewife, 

 who feared they were " vermin." I found these to be all L. benjrotU. A few 

 days later Mr. Musham went to iiispect and sent me the following particulars. 

 The house, au isolated old stone building, was situated at Kent's Bauk, 

 Grange-over-Siiuds, Lancashire, stood in a rose-garden, and faced the .sea. On 

 entering the kitchen, the only room infested, lie found the walls alive with 

 small beetles wliicii were hurrying about in all directions, several to the square 

 inch,althougli very large numbers had been removed with brush and slunel. 

 Mr. Musham sent me over some of the sweepings from the walls, etc., and these 

 I found consisted of i. bergrothi, Coniiiomus nodifer, and Enicnnis niinutus, in 

 the respective proportions of about 6, 1, 1 : and mixed amongst tlie del)ris of 

 wall-paper and colour-wash were a number of active pale larvae and pupae, 

 which, unfortunately, soon dried up and died. Mr. Musham reported that the 

 late tenant of that portion of the house '"had not been house-proud. "" There 

 was no stable near or stores of any kind, and he could give no explanation of 

 such a remarkable asseui])ly of these insects. Ish: DonLsthorpe kindly con- 

 firmed the identilicatiou of I,. ber(irothi. — William Wallace, Sismore 

 House, llainton Avenue, Grimsby : November '20th, 1920. 



* The series of II. f^erni/tin in the British Museum includes three e\-ani|)les from the Hawaiian 

 Isls. ex Blackburn. The insect H-un-d by Keitter in the "Fauna Germanica," vol. iii, Plate Si), 

 figs. 20 a, h, under the name Kmphylus ijlaber, is intended to represent K. serratus. 



