1(52 [Decemlier, 



Apion Schoenlierri in abundance in Sheppy. — While Mr. G. C. Champion and I 

 were prospecting for beetles on the Sheppy marshes one bitterly cold morning at the 

 end of October, it occurred to us to pull up a few tufts of withered grass at the 

 roots of some willows growing on the bank of a fresh water ditch. These tufts we 

 found to swarm with yellow-legged Apions, among which A. Schoenlierri (hitherto 

 taken very rarely by me in stack refuse some years ago) was by no means uncommon. 



Yesterday, we again visited the same spot ; it was too cold and damp for out- 

 door work, but we gathered a quantity of " shakings," and, on examining these at 

 home, we obtained A. Schoenlierri in large numbers. A. difforme was by far the 

 commonest species, occurring literally in thousands ; IceoicoJle was by no means rare, 

 and there were a few pubescens ; such plebeians as A.fagi, assimile, trifoUi, nigri- 

 tarse, vorax, cBthiopis, virens, being well represented in point of numbers. The only 

 other beetles at all worth mentioning were about a dozen of Throsciis obtusus, and 

 plenty of Sunius intermedius. 



In other parts of the Isle of Sheppy, we found a few beetles, of which Engis 

 humeralis and Coryphium angusticolle, under decayed elm bark, and Limnichus 

 pygmceus and Telmatophilus brevicollis, in pond refuse, perhaps deserve a passing 

 notice. 



I was not a little surprised, on casually examining a dead ash tree, to find under 

 its decaying bark, riddled with ancient burrows of Hylesiniis crenatus, a goodly 

 number of Diphyllus lunatus — a beetle I certainly did not expect to see in Sheppy. 

 — James J. Walker, R.N., 7, West Street, Blue Town, Sheerness : Nov. 12i!/i, 1878. 



[Mr. Walker's interesting experience of this rare Apion is curiously corrobora- 

 tive of my own some years ago at Seaford, with the exception that I found the 

 beetle in smaller niimbers. Apion Icevicolle in thousands was with it, and difforme 

 in great abundance, besides commoners. All were in and about old furze bushes. — 

 E. C. R.] 



Description of the larva, ^'c, of Myelois pinguis. — In Stainton's Manual, the un- 

 described larva of this species is said to feed in decayed ash trunks; and Hofmann, in 

 his work of 1875, gives no description of it, but merely says, "In spring, under the 

 bark of ash ": neither is any description of it afforded in the interesting records of 

 capture of the perfect insects, to be met with in the Entomologist's Weekly Intelli- 

 gencer (vide vol. vi, p. 164, and vol. viii, pp. 131 — 133 — 179), although the finding 

 the larva is mentioned, together with good hints for collectors; I therefore hope now 

 to throw some light on the larva, and a little on its habits, so far as they have been 

 ascertained with much perseverance by Dr. Wood (of Tarrington), who kindly pro- 

 vided me with examples of the larva and pupa in situ to figure. 



This larva inhabits the living bark of ash, frequently pollard trees, never affecting 

 any dead or decayed portions of a tree nor penetrating to the wood, nor does it eat 

 far into the bark, however thick, but generally less than an inch, and mines more of 

 a chamber than a gallery ; as it grows it enlarges its original small round hole of en- 

 trance, which eventually becomes of a size sufficient for the escape of the moth ; but 

 there are always a few long black grains of frass blocking the entrance ; this frass is 

 characteristic, and should be looked for, when searching a tree, on any projecting 

 bosses as well as on the spreading foot, upon which it sometimes falls and lodges ; 

 for stray grains of frass detected below afford a good clue to the situation of the 

 mine above. 



