14 



[January, 



the box was opened and crawled about rather sluggishly, or suddenly 

 jumped distances of about half an inch, but I saw only one fly, and that 

 not more than one or two feet. During the autumn and winter they 

 become sluggish and apparently moribund, but the starting of artificial 

 heat in the church caused some resumption of movement and emergence 

 from hiding-places. No revival in the spring has been observed at 

 Hascombe, however warm the weather. Walker (" Zoologist," iii, 1845, 

 p. 850) wrote that this Pteromalus lives throughout the year, being 

 torpid in cold weather, though a mild day often draws it from its retreat. 

 Its habit of getting into any kind of spaces, including those ahnost 

 airtight, has been alluded to in the note in " Natm-e," and is fully borne 

 out by the observations made at Hascombe, where the insects not only 

 crawl all over windows and walls, herd behind pictures, on curtains, in 

 books, inkpots, and boxes, but have found their way into a locked safe 

 and a secret drawer in a bureau. 



Besides the Hascombe swarm, particulars of others may be sum- 

 marised as follows : — 



Abinyer Common, Dorking. — Specimens submitted to Blair. Mr. John A. 

 Gibbs wrote on Aug. 24th, 1918, that the insects were then infesting a number 

 of houses iu the village in extraordinary numbers ; in his house they swarmed 

 on walls and windows, got under carpets and behind the glass of pictures ; 

 they were most numerous in rooms containing,quite modern furniture and with 

 very little woodwork, the walls and ceilings being plastered and distempered, 

 so it is not likely that they originated fiom Anobiid beetles in the rooms. 



Craivley, Sussex — Specimens examined by Blair, Mrs. M. A. Middleton 

 wrote on Oct. 30th, 1918, that her house had been infested by thousands of 

 them for two summers, that they were still there at the time of writing, 

 principally in rooms facing east, that they were attracted by lamps at night, 

 and that on one occasion they still showed signs of life after the burning of a 

 sulphur candle for three hours in a sealed-up room. This lady had not to her 

 knowledge any woodwork infested by Anobiid beetles in the house. 



Hever, Kent. — Specimens examined by Blair. Mr. E. G. B. Meade-Waldo 

 wrote on Sept. 14, 1918, that they swarmed in a number of cottages and 

 houses, and attracted evei'yone's notice. At the time of writing he thought 

 they were decreasing somewhat, a spell of bad weather having commenced 

 some time previously. He expressed the opinion that they did not originate 

 in the houses, but came in from out-of-doors. 



Felden, Herts. — Mr. Claude Morley writes that he has seen them in 

 myriads in a house at Felden, but in what year is not stated. 



In the Hascombe swarm and the samples sent to Blair, no other 

 species besides P. deplanatus was found among the specimens. In the 

 two following cases, particulars of which have been given me by J. C. F. 

 Fryer, a critical determination of the Chalcidid was not made, and the 



