162 [December, 



the time. I was undecided as to its being this species, until it was returned to me 

 as such by the Rev. W. W. Fowler. This species has occurred very rarely at 

 Wallasey, but, as far as I am aware, this is tlie first record of its capture on the 

 Lancashu-e side of the Mersey. — John W. Ellis, 101, Everton Road, Liverpool : 

 November 2th, 1882. 



Salicttis cylindriciis carnivorous. — The following observations on this apparently 

 abnormal habit of the male of the above species may probably prove interesting to 

 Hymenopterists, as neither Mr. Saunders nor Mr. Bridgman has seen or heard of 

 such before, and I myself, after about forty years' collecting and observing, have 

 never before met with anything of the kind, and can find no record or observation 

 to the effect that Halictus or any of the Anthophila are carnivorous. At the same 

 time there is nothing, so far as I am aware, in their structure to prevent their catching 

 and masticating insects, or if not exactly the latter, tearing them to pieces with their 

 formidable pincer-like jaws and sucking their juices, indeed, their oral apparatus 

 would seem more adapted to this mode of living than that of feeding on the pollen and 

 nectar of flowers ; be this as it may, so far as I am able to hear, they appear to have 

 confined themselves to the latter kind of food, still it would scarcely seem extraordi- 

 nary if they did indulge occasionally in some more substantial kind of food, seeing 

 that on both sides of them (according to our arrangements) we have carnivorous 

 groups, whose habits agree in almost every particular, except the choice of food. 

 Carnivorous habits in one of these nectar and pollen eating insects would seem to be 

 abnormal to the group to which it belongs ; but are we sufficiently acquainted with 

 the habits of these insects to pronounce that they are really abnormal ? All we can 

 say is, that we have not detected them before ; and if habits are to go for anything, 

 this fact would seem to connect the aculeate groups more strongly than has hitherto 

 been done. The following are the circumstances which brought the subject of this 

 communication under my notice : 



On August 7th of this year, a botanical friend and myself were out for the day 

 on our respective branches of study and collection, on the cliffs and adjoining fields 

 at Seaton, not far from the well-known landslip. We halted for a few minutes on 

 the side of a hill, where there were numbers of flowers, some new to my friend, and 

 there were also numbers of small insects. I was specially on the look-out for 

 Hymenoptera. While standing still, net in hand, I caught several Halicti, and I 

 may say, that with the exception of a few Bomhi about the heads of flowers of the 

 large and conspicuous nodding thistle, Cnicus nutans, the insects were all Halicti 

 and Diptera. I did not, to my surprise, see a fossor the whole day. While standing 

 there in the blazing sun, I caught sight of an insect approaching me with something 

 in its mouth ; I struck at it and caught it, and, to my surprise and astonishment, I 

 saw it was a male Halictus. I did not then stop to make a critical examination, but 

 put liim and his mouthful into a pill box ; and, not to mix him with the rest of my 

 captures, I put him into a side pocket, that there should be no mistake. The next 

 morning when I came to examine him, I found that I had captured a male Halictus 

 cylindricus, with a fly {ScatopTiaga, not described by Walker in his British Diptera), 

 a larva oi Acocephalus (apparently agrestis), and three or four Aphides. The head 

 of the fly had been mutilated, but the rest of the body was intact ; the larva and 

 Aphides have dried up, so that I have not kept them, but tlie fly I have preserved. 



