1919.1 17 



New localities for xome tiitcresfhu/ lliniiiptira. — Amoi-f^-st some Ik'iniptera 

 recently sent me ibr naming by Mr. J. W. Carter, F.I'^.S., I was very glail 

 to see a specimen of Ulnsniostet/ius ferruf/atus Fabr., wliicli was taken by 

 Mr. Carter near Bradford, Yorks, in 1889. This is the third recorded British 

 specimen of this species, and is really the earliest in order of time, as the ether 

 two were taken, respectively, near Bangor in 1899 by Mr. Sopp, and at Derby 

 in 1903 by Mr. G. Piillen. 



While staying for a short time in the south of Oxfordshire last Angust, [ 

 found the Homopteron Gryjyotes piuetellvs Bob. in some numbers on Scotcli iir 

 on the Chiltern Hills at Goring Heath, and also a single specimen in the 

 Thames Valley at Goring. This species has previously been recorded only 

 from the neighbourhood of Mildenhall, Suflblk, where it was discovered a iv:\v 

 years ago by the Messrs. Fryer. I also took from Lombardy poplars at Goring 

 a pair of Idiocerus scmjv« Germ., a species which has hitherto been recorded 

 only from the immediate' neighbourhood of Loudon. — E. A. Butler, 14 

 Drylands Road, Hornsey, N. 8 : Dec 7th, 1918. 



Delphax distincta Flor, and D. indlula Boh. in Ctimberla/id. — Among a 

 number of more or less interesting Homoptera recently submitted to JNlr. K. A. 

 Butler for names were four males and two females of the first-named species ■ 

 and a single male of the latter, all taken by me in June last by sweeping coarse 

 herbage on Cumwhitton Moss. Both species were introduced to the British 

 list by Scott without localities. INlr. Butler informs nie that he knows of only 

 one previous British pullula and none oi distincta. My best thanks are due to 

 INlr. Butler for his kind help, and also to Mr. James Edwards, to whom the 

 insects were also referred. — F. H. Day, 26, Currock Terrace, Carlisle : 

 Nov. 22nd, 1918. 



Ci-ahro capitosus Shzick. in the Midlands. — In the Counties of Leicester, 

 Warwick, and Northampton, this wasp, said by Saunders to be rare, must be 

 one of the commonest of the genus. Its habit, pei'haps, is obscure, for 1 have 

 never caught it at large, but I have " bred " it freely, and this note on its 

 economy may be the means of discovering whether the species is equally 

 abundant elsewhere. When our hedges are trimmed the ash-twigs that are 

 severed, as also those that are broken accidentally in woods, throw out a shoot 

 on each side a foot or less from the end, thus forming a sort of trident the 

 middle prong of Avhich becomes dead. Into the pith of the central prong 

 Crabro capitosus bores, but does not stop — as is the case with all other 

 Aculeates boring in bramble and briar stems — at the dead portion of the twig ; 

 she bores far beyond, past the two new and growing shoots, right down into 

 the green pith for twelve inches or so. The cells are provisioned with Aphides, 

 and between each cell a partition, as long as or longer than the cell, is formed 

 of minute loose pieces of green pith. There are usually nine or ten cells in a 

 stem. The larvae make cylindrical cocoons of transparent yellow membrane 

 and emerge (when the stems are kept indoors) in April and May, the sexes 

 being about equally represented. In no case have I found cocoons in the dead 

 part of the stem and only once in anything but ash, that once being in a 

 growing elder-twig. I have not obtained any parasites. Wherever I look in 

 tiie hedges in these three counties I am sure of finding perforated ash-twigs in 



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