OQA September. 



Of our other Prist ipliora spp., P. geniculata ( = cheilo?i) most 

 resembles P. melanocarpa, having, like that species, entirely black 

 antennae (not rufescent beneath! j, a black stigma, and black and white 

 legs with white trocbanters ; but it is larger and more robust, the labrum 

 and also the apex of the clypeus seem to be always pale in both sexes, 

 the head is more strongly sculptured (its upper areas more sharply defined 

 than is usual in Prist iphoi'ct !j, the vertex is very much longer (in 

 vielanocephala its length does not exceed the diameter of an ocellus !), 

 and in the $ the saw-sheath (viewed from above) is much wider and 

 more distinctly emarginate at its aj^ex. 



It is theoxAj Prist i2)liora (and almost the onl}' normal "Xematid") 

 that is known to be attached to Mountain Ash. 



Hitherto, according to Enslin, it has been known only from 

 Germany and Holland. I can find no mention at all of it (either as 

 geniculatus or as cheilon^ in vol. i of Andre's " Species," nor in the 

 works of any authors other than those mentioned above. Hartig Avas 

 not yet acquainted with it when he published his great work on the 

 Families of Piatt- u. Solzwespen (1837), and in the " Neue Ausgabe " 

 of that work (dated Berlin, 1860) it is still left unnoticed. 



Woking. 



August 16^/i, 1922. 



A CONTEIBUTION TO THE LIFE-HISTOKY OF DERAEOCORIS RUBER L. 

 BY E. A. BUTLEE, B.A., B.SC, F.E.S. 



This is the insect which stands in the latest British catalogue 

 (1908) as Capsus ruber L. In British text-books it has appeared at 

 different times under several aliases, Capsus capillarisY ., C. laniariiisJj., 

 G. ruher L., and in Reuter's great Avork "'Hem. Gymn. Europae " it is 

 called Deraeocoris segusinus Miill., but after all these changes the 

 name seems now to have settled down, so far as anything human can be 

 said to do so, into Z>. ruber L., under which it is entered in Oshanin's 

 " Katalog" (1912) with no fewer tban 26 synonyms appended. Almost 

 all these names were given during the last half of the 18th centurv, and 

 while therefore the insect was recognised only as an inhabitant of 

 Europe. At the present day it is known to include in its area also both 

 the Nearctic and the Neotropical Provinces. Though one of our common 

 species, it has been recorded in the British Isles only fi-om central and 

 southern England and South Wales. I have not seen any records from 



