1922.] 191 



this time under the bark of iin oalc-stump iu tlie glen below Penicuik House. 

 The two localities are within a mile of each other. — William Ea'ans, 

 38 Morning-side Park, Edinbui'gh : June 22nd, 1922. 



Chaetocnema sp. injurimi Wheat. — Last month I received from Mr. E. W. 

 Fentou, Seale-Hayne Agric. College, Devon, some young wheat-plants which 

 were .said to be attacked by an insect other than the Hessian Fly. At the base 

 of the stem just above tlie soil-level was a small, oval, gall-like swelling, which 

 on being opened was found to contain the larva of a Chaetocnema (sp. incert.). 

 The injury to the wheat does not seem to have been extensive, a smnll area 

 only being affected. So far as I know, no record of a species of the Halticid- 

 genus Chaetocnema causing such damage has appeared in Britain, though io 

 France {cf. Bull. Soc. Eut. France, 1895, p. xlviiij Chaetocnema aridnla Gyll. 

 is stated to attack cultivated oats, and in Russia there ai'e various records of 

 C. aridida Gyll. and C. horfensis GeoHr. behaving in a similar way in cereals. — 

 F. LainCx, British Museum (Nat. Hi.st.) : JulyUth, 1922. 



An Eastern Species of Gcdkriadae imported into Britain. — I am indebted 

 to Mr. Kayniond Wadsworth, Bournville, for some specimens of a Galleriad, 

 Aphoniia gidaris Zell., which seems likely to assume some economic im- 

 portance. They were bred about a year ago from a consignment of infested 

 walnuts, imported direct from Marseilles. The larvae are said to behave 

 much in the same way as those of Ephestia kilhniella, and to resemble that 

 species in appearance. The wood of the boxes in which the nuts were packed 

 was bored by the larvae, and the cocoons built in the holes so f(U'ined. The 

 range of the species seems to be gradually extending. Originally described 

 (Horae Soc. Eut. Ross, xiii, p. 74, pi. 1, fig. 26, pi. 2, fig. 27, 1877) from Japan, 

 it has been recorded from China, Vladivostock, India, and recently (1919) 

 from U.S.A., where it had done a certain amount of damage to stored peanuts. 

 — F. Laing : Jnly 19//?, 1922. 



Phylloxera salicis Licht., a species of Aphid new to Britain. — Speciuieus of 

 this insect have been brought me by iNIr. H. Donisthorpe, who found them under 

 the bark of a willow at Acle, Norfolk. Originally described by Lichtenstein 

 in 1884 (Ann. Soc. Ent. France (6), iv, p. cxxii), it has been recorded from 

 France, Italy, and Germany. The species has been exceedingly well described 

 and illustrated in the monumental monograph " Contribido alia Conoscenza delta 

 Fillosserine," edited by Grassi (Rome, 1912).— F. Laing : July Uth, 1922. 



A Drama on a Rose-leaf. — One day last week I was witness of a little 

 drama which was enacted on a leaf of a rose-bush in a garden, but whether 

 it was traged3',or comedy, or merely a practical joke, I could not decide. The 

 dramatis personae were two — a plump-bodied but not very large green aphis, 

 and a small slender-bodied but ample-winged hymenopteron with rather long 

 antennae. The aphis had its rostrum firmly implanted in the tissues of the 

 leaf and was e\idently bu.sy feeding; the hymenopteron had placed itself at 

 the side, at right angles to the hemipteron, and was stroking, or rather 

 tickling, the body of the latter with the tips of its antennae. The aphis 

 evidently resented such treatment, said every now and then it raised its 



