239 [October, 



inject was dead in an empty bucket, nnd was almost the only beetle that I took 

 while at the O.T.O. camp on that part of Salisbury Pliun.— Geokge B. Ryle, 

 G Chesham Place, Brighton : Septcviber loth, 1919. 



Coh'optera of the Brujhton District: a correction. — In the August number 

 of this journal I mentioned A(jahus bic/uttatus as having been taken "in a 

 small roadside ditch " ; Mr. Tottenham has kindly pointed out to me that 

 A. guttatus was the species which we found. — George B. Rylk. 



Further localities for Plafi/ptis cj/lindrm F. — In the last number of this 

 magazine (p. 208) my friend Mr. Claude Morley, when recording Flatyjms 

 cylindrus from the New Forest, states that Fowler gives the following locali- 

 ties : — Windsor, Shipley, New Forest, Monmouth, Herefordshire, and Scar- 

 borough, " with no additions to these in the Supplement".'' If he will look at 

 page 319 of the Supplement he will spe — " Flriti/pus ct/liinlrus F., Chiddingfuld, 

 not uncommon {Donidhorpe).'" This rare Scolytid used to occur rather freely 

 in stumps of oak, the wood being so hard that it could only be split by much 

 labour with an axe. I have seen a number of the beetles boring ipto such 

 stumps with remarkable ra])idity. Their round bcu'ings ara stained black, 

 and no doubt the insect makes use of an acid of some kind to soften the wood. 

 Mr. Cliampion has also taken Platypus in Surrey, at Hurst Wood near 

 Chilwoith. — Horace Donisthorpe, Putney : Septemher, 1919. 



Choerocampa nerii at Huddersjield. — Mr. S. L. Mosley. of our Technical 

 College Museum, this morning brought for my inspection a specimen of 

 Cltoerocampa nerii which was found by a working-man in a yard in King- 

 Street, Iludderstield, early in the present month. The man, knowing nothing 

 about it, unfortunately kept it in a box for some days before taking it to 

 Mr. Mosley on the 11th, when it was still alive, but as might have been 

 expected, considerably damaged, by the edges of the fore wing being a good 

 deal frayed. It had evidently been a good specimen when tirst captured, and 

 even yet makes quite a presentable one. There is only one previous record of 

 the species for the county, a poor example at Sheffield on September 11th, 1867. 

 — Geo. T. PoRRiTT, Elm Lea, Ualton, Huddersfield : Septeynber Vlth, 1919. 



The sound-producing organ of Deinacrida megacephala Fuller. — In the 

 Cambridge Natural History, "Insects," Part 1, p. 327, it is pointed out that 

 " the fact that a clicking noise is jjroduced by the Weta-punga is of some 

 interest, for the genus Deinacrida is among the Locustidae that possess ears, but 

 are said to be destitute of sound-producing organs." Being very familiar with 

 the stridulation of our common species, Deinacrida inegacephala BuUer, it 

 appeared desirable to ascertain, if possible, precisely how the sound was pro- 

 duced. No trace of any special organ could be found on the femur of the hind 

 legs, but a careful examination of the side of the second abdominal segment of 

 both sexes, clearly reveals, in the living insect, the presence of about six 

 minute file-like ridges which are evidently operated upon by the inner edge of 

 the base of the femur of the liind legs, these legs being raised high above the 

 insect's back when it is stridulnting. By this means the Weta can produce a 

 rather harsh grating, or clicking, sound which is unquestionably employed to 



