10 [January, 



But apparently this has not been proved until now. The project- 

 ing point on the ventral edge of the valva should enable anyone to 

 separate the male finitimella from any of the existing British species. 



I am also greatly indebted to Messrs. Alfred Sich and E. Meyrick 

 for their kind help ; to John Gardner, A. C. Vine, B. S. Harwood, 

 T. Ashton Lofthouse, W. Mansbiidge, F. G. Whittle, and the Eev. J. W. 

 Metcalfe for loan of specimens ; and, lastly, to my old friend, the 

 Rev. C. R. N. Burrows, for sending me the poor little scaleless specimen 

 he captured in his garden, which has led to the discovery that P. fini- 

 timella really occurs in England. 



The Ehns, Dingle, Liverpool : 

 November 19</i, 1916. 



ON A NEW SPECIES OF PSAMMOCHARES (OE, POMPILUS) 



IN ENGLAND. 



BY R. C. L. PERKINS, M.A., D.Sc. 



In the summer of 1897, I captured, in the Forest of Dean, a 

 black Pompilns, superficially like P. nigerrimns Scop., but which on 

 examination proved to be an extremely distinct species. Not long 

 afterwards, I sent the insect, a ^J , to Mr. Edward Saundeis, who in- 

 formed me that he knew nothing like it. Still, he did not care to 

 describe it. This specimen, with a description, which I drew up, 

 passed to the Cambridge Museum with my earlier collections, but 

 some time since, Mr. Hugh Scott allowed me to take it away for com- 

 parison with the European sj^ecies in the British Museum, and for the 

 purpose of publishing the description, if new. 



As it happens, the British Museum has lately acquired a pair of 

 this same species, bred from cocoons found in Middlesex by Mr. K. Gr. 

 Blair, who has supplied the following note : 



" On May 5th, 1912, at Stanmore, I found, on splitting some 

 dead thistle stems of the previoiis year, two series of Hymenopterous 

 cocoons. These were elongate- oval, about 9 mm. long and 3.5 mm. 

 broad near the broader end. They are of a brownish testaceous 

 colour, with a darker tip to the narrow end. The tip appears to be 

 composed of debris, and not to form part of the cocoon itself. There 

 were seven or eight of the cocoons in each stem ; the burrow, as is 

 usual with insects of this family, being stored with spiders (Cluhion- 

 idae). The insects emerged on June 2nd, exit from the cocoon being 

 effected by cutting off a lid at the broader end." 



