1902.] 159 



coloured Rhogogcstera picta. Within a week after death the stigma in all my 

 specimens became completely black ; and the body markings were already beginning 

 to fade from green to yellow — this change, however, being as yet only just per- 

 ceptible. I think this worth recording, as neither in King's original description, 

 nor in the later ones of Cameron and Andre, does the word "green," or any equiva- 

 lent of it, occur at all — they speak only of black and yellow, having no doubt 

 described from specimens which had lost the original coloration. The blackening 

 of the stigma seems to me a remarkable phenomenon, and I should be glad to know 

 why in this respect P. antennata differs from other sawflies — e. g., various species 

 of Pleronus and Rhogogastera, in which the stigma is either green permanently, or, 

 if it fades, fades to white or yellow. In the green bodied Tenthredo mesomela, L., 

 the stigma is black ; but I believe it is so always, even in living specimens. I do 

 not know any parallel to the change from green to black which takes place with 

 such curious rapidity in the stigma, &c, of /'. antennata. So far as I can see it is 

 not a mere external blackening of the surface, but a complete conversion of the 

 colouring substance contained in the stigma from green to black. On the other 

 hand the fading of the green body markings into yellow seems to occur almost 

 universally in sawflies of this coloration, though it sometimes takes years to com- 

 plete the process. 



Strongt/logaster cingulatus, F. — In a previous note I have recorded the occur- 

 rence of numerous males of this species at Swanage, although Cameron and Smith 

 both found this sex so rare, that the former writer concludes that the species is 

 mainly parthenogenetic This spring, when collecting with Dr. Sharp near Lynd- 

 hursf at the end of May, I again found males in abundance, but, strange to say, not 

 on the ferns where the females were common. Between us we took some 30 or 40 

 specimens, flying up one after another to circle about the tip of a little isolated 

 beech seedling (a mere dry stick with half-a-dozen leaves on it) during a short 

 sunny interval, about 1.30 p.m. on a dull day. And I saw a few others behaving 

 similarly round a spray of wild rose hard by. What was the attraction to them I 

 do not know, but it was curious to see them come up one after another, wheel about 

 once or twice, and then fly away. There was never a crowd of them, but a constant 

 succession, as long as the gleams of sunshine lasted. I believe there may have been 

 one or two also among the ferns with the females, but if so, it was quite the ex- 

 ception. As a rule the females stuck to the ferii, and the males would have nothing 

 to do with it ; whereas at Swanage, if I remember rightly, the fern was frequented 

 by both sexes indifferently and exclusively.— F. D. Morice, Brunswick, Woking : 

 June, 1902. 



The identity of Eucera Jongicomin, Linn. — At the request of Herr J. D. 

 Alfken, I have recently examined the type specimens of this species in the 

 Linnean Collection at Burlington House, and they are clearly referable to the 

 species generally known on the Continent as difJficUis, Perez, and described under 

 this name by Friese (Apidae Europsea}), and not to the species described by him as 

 lungicornis, Linn. The males of the two species, though very much alike, are 

 easily distinguished, that of longicornis, Linn., = difficilis, having the posterior 

 metatarsi slightly curved, and that of the other species (which will require another 



