82 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



pedestris. He first found it near Darenth Wood, in company with some 

 Myrmicae, and he says it occurs in Ireland on the sandhills of the 

 coast. Once he saw four ants carrying off a Dryinus (Gonatopus), but 

 his approach frightened three away, and the remaining ant and the 

 Gonatopus fought without either party getting an advantage. 



G. ljunghii: This species is hardly likely still to occur on 

 Wimbledon Common, but it might be found in Richmond Park on 

 sandy spots. I am unable to distinguish it from the description of 

 G. pedestris, Dalm., by KiefFer, except by the dark posterior coxae, 

 possibly the head is not so level. It is better for the present to 

 preserve Westwood's name, even if it has not priority. 



G. oratorius : The type of this is badly broken. It ought to be 

 possible still to take this insect on the Surrey commons. Its colour 

 renders it very distinct. 



G. bicolur : This is tbe G. nigriventris of Nees and Marshall's 

 Catalogue. I cannot understand how it ever got mixed with pedestris, 

 i.e., distinguendus, Kieff., and distinctus, Kieff., in Marshall's collection, 

 as it is structurally very distinct from them. It is, however, very 

 variable in colour. Marshall's MS. description adopted by Dr. Kieffer 

 in the first instance, is inaccurate, see Andre, p. 508 (Kieffer) ; the 

 2nd thoracic node is " distinctement stride en travers posterieure- 

 ment," as there pointed out. The variation in colour extends to the 

 first node of the thorax, and the legs, as stated by Walker (Ent. Mo. 

 Mag., iv., p. 412). Possibly Haliday's note, quoted above, applies to 

 this species. If the insect is myrmecophilous, the variation of colour 

 is intelligible, as it would resemble different ants in its different forms, 

 compare Volucella bombylans parasitic on Bombi. 



G. distinguendus: In my two specimens, the hind coxae have a dark 

 spot above. They are the most slender of the specimens in my 

 collection. 



G. distinctus : In my specimens the face is of the same colour as 

 the base of the antennae. 



The Scotch Gonatopi from Mr. W. Evans are the first recorded 

 from that country. 



I ought to correct my record on p. 161 of the last volume, the 

 Proctotrypid insect there recorded from Whitstable is, I find after all, 

 Epyris nigra, which occurs all over that district of Kent. This is not 

 the same insect as Goniozus claripennis, which I have taken at Deal as 

 there stated. Besides this, Ponea punctatissima is, after all, P. 

 contracta. 



Habits of Sciapteron tabaniforme. 



By De. T. A. CHAPMAN. 

 As Mr. P. C. Reid's query about this species is not likely to be 

 answered from English material, I may venture to say that I found 

 imagines and pupa; in Norway, in 1898 {Ent. Mo. Mag., 1899, p. 107). 

 Insects, or traces of them, occurred in aspens at ground level, and up 

 to four or five feet (or as high as I could comfortably examine), on 

 trees of six or eight inches in diameter, always on living trees, and 

 always where they had received some injury. I recollect one where 

 there was exposed wood, and the bark in its usual way trying to grow 

 over it, but much hindered by the injury done to it by the larva of 



