160 tJ"'r. 



Hiibitb of Pancalia leuwenhoekeJln. — In a former note in this Magazine 

 (vol. li, p. 241) I indicated the desirability of ascertaining whether this 

 species rested with the hind legs lifted from the surface, as is the manner of 

 the Heliodinidaf. I have hitherto forgotten it each year at the right season, 

 but this year I remembered and got my youngest son to collect some living 

 exiuuples, which I kept for two dsfys and watched under various circum- 

 stances. The hind legs were never erected; in walking they are slightly 

 bowed outward.^, and, as it were, displayed, and when movement ceases they 

 still retain this attitude, resting on the surface in the normal way ; but when 

 the insect is in repose (or asleep), the hind legs are removed from the surface 

 and lie along the side of the abdomen. I verified this in several individuals, 

 and consider that it confirms the location in tlie Heliodinidae ; the same 

 attitude is taken by Vunicela, for example. The antennae in repose are 

 directed obliquely upwards and backwards.— Edward Meykick, Thornhanger, 

 ^Marlborough : Jane 6t/i, 1919. 



Note on a pecidvirity in the burrows of Hcdictus macuhdus S7/1. — Halictus 

 maculatiis Sni., though first described from this country, has been very in- 

 frequently met with. I have only once come across it myself, and should 

 certainly have been unaware of its presence had I not stopped to examine 

 some burrows, which appeared to me in some way different from any others I 

 had seen. These burrows were scattered over three or four square yards of a 

 very large pasture-held, and not placed close together so as to form a com- 

 pact colony. The surface of the field was almost level about the place where 

 the colony was situated, and though there were some very attractive banks 

 near by, these were not occupied by the species in question, nor could any trace 

 of it be found in any part of the field save the one spot, where the burrows 

 were first noticed. The opening of the burrows was very small, smaller in 

 fact tlum that of the burrow of the common H. tvnmloriun, which was nesting 

 in the same place, and was alwa3's exposed, none being covered over with the 

 little heaps of earth that one usually observes over the openings of burrows 

 wiien these are made in a practically flat surface. In many cases the earth 

 removed from the burrows was very noticeable, but it la}' around the opening 

 and not above it. When I started to dig out the first burrow with a knife, I 

 was surprised to see that directly below the opening the diameter became very 

 much larger, and I felt sure that the bee itself would be something I was 

 unacqnainted with. Unfortunately, in this first attempt, the occupant was 

 killed and dropped down the burrow, from which it could not be recovered. 

 On examining the other burrows more carefully I saw that in each case the 

 bi=e itself was stationed at the mouth, the head exactly filling the opening. If 

 t!ie bee withdrew for a short way down the burrow, a slight disturbance with 

 a urass-stem at the opening would at once bring it back. In the case of 

 those with which I interfered they did not ever retire to the depths of the 

 biuTow, as most bees do under such circumstances, and consequently they were 

 easily unearthed. After obtaining about half a dozen specimens, I decided not 

 to disturb this small colony any further, since on these hibernated females 

 depends the fresh produce of both sexes in the later summer. It seems a 

 remarkable fiict that on a warm summer morning in June, with other bees and 



