120 [May, 1917. 



about and apparently trying to come through the hedge, I stood 

 quite still and waited for a few moments, with the result that I had 

 the felicity of seeing a badger come through the hedge, its white face- 

 streaks revealing its identity unmistakeably, although I was rather 

 expecting to see a fox. After regarding me fixedly for some seconds 

 it retreated the way it had come, and I heard it floundering down the 

 hedge in full retreat. 



The brambles being still in bud only, I tried wild rose flowers, 

 but found them very unproductive and apparently unattractive to 

 insects, my only capture worth noting being a fine specimen of Crior- 

 rhina berherina. The common ox-eye daisy produced Strangalia 

 melanura in good quantity, and the gout-weed supplied me with 

 Oedeniern nohilis in some numbers, with an occasional Oe. Inrida. 



A visit to the Slad quarry yielded some fresh specimens of Volu- 

 cella hombylans and a few var. plmnata ; also a fine Criorrhina 

 oxyacanthae. On my way back I got a somewhat worn " queen " of 

 Psithyrus quadricolor and a black male of Bombus ruderatns. I was 

 very surprised at the latter as that species had not previously been 

 seeii by me in the district. Dr. Perkins, however, tells me that it 

 occurs freely in some parts of Grioucestershire on kidney-bean flowers. 

 The only other locality in which I have so far met with it is Saffron 

 Walden, where the queens are plentiful in all forms on dead nettle and 

 other flowers in the Spring. I should be glad to know of any locality 

 near London where it occurs. 



I was puzzled on several occasions to account for a mysterious 

 humming in beech trees, as if a wasps' or bees' nest were established 

 amongst the branches, and at last found that it was due to numbers 

 of Bombi and Vespae visiting them for the honey dew deposited on the 

 leaves by, I presume, PhijUai)hi!^ f'^O'i- I l^^d not noticed this on 

 previous occasions, so possibly the Aphid was particularly abundant 

 that year. 



My visit in 1916 was memorable for two things — a good haul of 

 Callidium violaceum, a,nd the scarcity of Bombi and Vespae. The 

 season was certainly backward, for although I Avas ten days later than 

 in 1915, things seemed less advanced even than on that occasion. 

 Another noteworthy item was that for the first time my " Bignell-tray " 

 accompanied me, as I had not thought it worth while to take it before 

 owing to the unsatisfactory nature of the woods above referred to. The 

 most intei-esting things it introduced to my notice were a specimen of 

 Centvotus cornufus from a small roadside sallow ; three larvae of 



