laifl-] 233 



intimidate intruders and probably also used as a call or lure between the sexes. 

 This sound is frequently heard in New Zealand forests at nif^fht. — G. V. 

 Hudson, Hillview, Karori, Wellington, New Zealand : July Gth, 1919. 



Diptera in Perthshire. — The following Diptera taken by me this season 

 appear to be worthy of mention : Oxyccra dives Lw., J , Aberfoyle, June 21st^ 

 on the same ground where the species occurred in 1903. It must be very 

 scarce, as I have searched for it on several occasions during the intervening 

 sixteen years without success, and the $ still escapes detection ! Symphoroniyia 

 crassicornis Pz., cJ, Balquhidder, June 26th. Seems to be a rare species in 

 Scotland. I have only once taken it before — at Comrie in 1907. Thcrioplectes 

 micans Mg., 2 $ 5, Loch Voil, June 26th. I saw others, but failed to capture 

 them. Nethy Bridge, as mentioned in " British Flies," vol. v, p. 3o5, appears to 

 be the only recorded Scottish locality for this fine Tabanid. On the same day, 

 and almost on the same spot, I got S S ^^ Thcrioplectes distinguendus Verr., 

 Haematopota crassicornis Whlbg., and Chrysojis relicta Mg., $ ? of the latter 

 were in great numbers at the side of Loch Lubnaig on June 20th. Isopoyon 

 hrevirostris Mg., Callander, June 19th,; a rare species in my experience, but I 

 have it from a wide district of Perthshire extending from Aberfoyle to Comrie. 

 Physocephala nigra Deg., J , Aberfoyle, July 1st, my first capture of this fine 

 Couopid. Polietes hirticrura Mde , c? 2 . Callander, June 25th. This is only 

 the second recorded capture of the $ —cf. Ent. Mo. Mag., 190G, p. 269- 

 Hydrotaea pilipes Stein, 2 , Callandar, June 28th. A new locality for this rare 

 fly. In addition to the above I got a Mydaea and a Trichopticiis, which are 

 not in the British List, but I cannot name them. I also got at Callander 

 a S ErisUdis, which I thought at first was vitripennis Strobl, as the wings 

 are clear, and the hind femora whitish yellow on about the basal fourth ; but 

 the colour of the body pubescence does not agree with the rest of the descrip- 

 tion, and I am afraid it is only rupium, of which I took several typical 

 examples. The specimen seems quite mature. — A. E. J. Carter, Monifieth : 

 September 2nd, 1919. 



A Note on four British ComJs.— Newstead, in his Monograph of the 

 British Coccidae, vol. ii, gives t^vo localities for Kermes quercus (Linn.), 

 Wimbledon Common and Sherwood Forest. Green has, if I remember rightly, 

 had this species sent to him from Yorkshire. On J une 19th, 1919, 1 found speci- 

 mens of it on two oak trees at the edge of the wood not f pa- from the Windmill 

 on Wimbledon Common, but not in any large quantity. Isolated individuals 

 were scattered over the trunk and lower branches. On August 31st, 1919, 

 the same species was found on oak trees in Richmond Park. Every tree 

 standing in the open examined— and about 100 trees were examined— had 

 the scale in the crevices of the bark, very often in very considerable numbers. 

 On examining the spinneys, however, it was found that the scales were confined 

 to those oak trees at the margin, and always on the side of the trunk and 

 branches facing outwards. Captain James Waterston, of the Imperial Bureau 

 of Entomology, tells me that he had noticed this scale, or a nearly allied species, 

 in Macedonia, and that it seemed to be confined to isolated oak trees. In 1914 

 and 1915 the same ground in Richmond Park was frequently gone over, but 

 never once was this scale observed. A great many of the specimens were 

 heavily parasitised, but it was apparently too late in the year to obtain any of 



X 



