-875.] 107 



Note on Eros mintttus. — Having a. ft'W hours' leisure in the intervals of llic 

 business of the Britisli Association, Mr. IJatcs, ilr. McLachlan, and I were duly 

 escorted by a friendly band of Bristolian experts to Leigh Woods, their happy 

 hunting ground, where, from the luxuriant growth of many kinds of trees, the age 

 of most of the timber, and the evident traces of insect life, it is clear that collecting 

 in the early summer could not fail to be very profitable. The time of year, however, 

 being at the time of our visit unpropitious, and our opportunity very small, nothing 

 of any consequence was found, except, perhaps, Orchesia undulata, of which erratic 

 skipper I found five or six specimens in fungoid growth under felled oak bark, where 

 Cerylon, Leptusa, &c., of course occurred. In looking for such things, I was some- 

 what surprised to find, on three or four occasions, very fine specimens of AmpMpyra 

 pyramidea, packed in spaces that must ap])areutly have somewhat pinched tliem for 

 room. The only species really worth recording, that fell to our lot, was Eros minutus 

 — that " little Lycus " whilom found hero by Senor Edwyn Reed of Chile, whose 

 secret appears to have crossed the seas with him, and of which sporadic examples 

 have occurred in various parts of the south, chiefly by sweeping under fir trees. 

 Of this, we " happened on " a brood, a straggler of which caught the attention of my 

 Neuropterous colleague, who, not forgetful of old Eannoch experiences with the 

 larger species, immediately called my attention to it. The insect was living under 

 practically the same conditions as its Scotch ally, in the very rotten and almost 

 powdery remains of a large felled stump, on which Scaphidium, not often seen by 

 cockneys, alternately raced and shammed death. This stump was so old, that no 

 fibre or bark remained to guess as to what tree it had once belonged ; it was too 

 large for fir, — and, from the svu-rounding growth, was probably oak. Forty-seven 

 specimens fell to us ; and, as only the odd seven were females, the species is clearly 

 one of the Polyandria. These females were found in copuhl, the balance of males 

 rambling about in search of partners ; most of them shammed death on being 

 touched, and one flew briskly. The insect varies much in size, from 2\ lines to 4 ; 

 and the female is readily distinguishable by her much stouter build, and much 

 shorter and thicker antenna). As usual in insects of soft integuments, some amount 

 of distortion or malformation occurred in the number taken, chiefly in the antenntr ; 

 in one example, those organs are apparently female on tlie left and male on the right. 

 In another, a <? , the right front tibia is deejily bifurcate at the apex, the upper 

 furcation bearing a normal tarsus, and the lower having a tarsus of which the three 

 basal joints are normal, and the fourth is unduly dilated, two perfectly formed claw- 

 joints springing from near tlio centre of its comparatively monstrous lobes. — 

 E. C. Kvi',, rarkfield, Putney, S.W. : SepLonher, 1875. 



A^oie on an unrecorded hahit nf Cryptojjhagus pnpuli. — During a recent ramble 

 of Mr. Marsh and myself to Farnham, Surrey, we chanced to pass a high cutting of 

 soft sandstone, extending for some little distance along one side of the road, tlio 

 perpendicular sides of which proved to be riddled with thousands of burrows of 

 Colletes Davicsana, containing abundance of the insect in all its stages j and, on 

 looking closely round the holes of the Colletes, and at the base of the cutting, wo 

 found a Cryptophagus in abundance. This, on examination, turned out to be the 

 rare C. populi, a species hitherto found in fungus and rott en wood. 



Judging from the specimens obtained, it ajipetirs to me to be one of our most 



