-Ua 



inir.j 



TricJiiosoma hetitleti from a liawtliorn Lush; and an example of Ph^dfXN ^ Q ](■ 

 hius caJcarafns with black elytra spotted with coppery red isia>rks, a 

 result due to the normal coveriuer of greenish scales beinw ehtii»k^ 

 wanting. This specimen was beaten from a Scots pine, and it seems 

 rather remarkable that it should have become so abraded. The Trichio- 

 soma larvae were apparently confined to that one bush, for I found no 

 others. 



The Callidium violacemn bred very freely in my host's summer- 

 house, which was built of matchboards and faced with split 2-inch 

 larch poles. These larch poles were sprinkled with the cvirious rounded 

 oblong apertures, through which the beetles emerged, and the 

 latter generally appeared from about midday until 2 p.m. On one 

 day I got seven and much admired the almost tropical look of 

 the insects as they crawled slowly about the wood, the females in some 

 cases having their ovipositors deeply inserted in the cracks. Some 

 specimens were decidedly violet, others strongly tinged with green, 

 but most were of a rich deep blue. I had seen one maimed specimen 

 crawling on the garden path on one of my former visits, but not being 

 aware of its identity or habits I did not hit upon its probable source. 



On this visit I again found Oedemera nohilis in numbers, and 

 Oe. lurida commoner than in the previous year, but both species were 

 on ox-eye daisy and hawkweeds instead of goutweed. 



I met with some fresh specimens of Abraxas uhnata sitting on 

 dog's mercury and other leaves, and looking like starling-di'oppings, 

 in a larch wood bordered by a few wych elms and some large beeches. 



On hawkweed flowers in one spot, on the edge of an upland 

 path, I found several specimens of Ceplius injijmaexis, a sawfly which I 

 had not met with before ; all were females. 



The beating-tray also yielded sundry Dascillvs cervimis from 

 hawthorn, and I found others in several places on nettles and other 

 herbage. The goutweed jDroduced two Tenthredo bicinehts and one 

 T. viridis. The latter was calmly munching an unfortunate CJdoromyia 

 formosa to my great a.stonishment, as I did not then know that any 

 sawflies were carnivorous in their imaginal state. 



The last evening of my stay was devoted to the taking of a small 

 nest of Vesj^a norvegica from a haystack. It took some time to get 

 out and sufEei'ed considerably in the process, as it was much involved 

 with the stalks of the hay. I established it in a rubbish heap in the 

 garden here, with the help of some hay from the lawn, and the few 



