^ [January, 



individual being found affected. I might instance such species as 



Andrena nigrocenea, A. varians, Halictus tmnulorum, H. cylindricus, 



and others. 



The genus Prosopls is also said to have been found showing signs 



of the escape of the parasite, but none of our other genera appear to 



be liable to its attack. 



Sopworth Rectory, Chippenham : 

 December, 1891. 



NEUROPTERA OBSERVED IN" THE CHANNEL ISLANDS IN 

 SEPTEMBER, 1891. 



BY ROBERT McLACHLAN, F.R.S., &c. 



The only excuse for publishing the following meagre notes is that 

 practically nothing whatever has been written on the Neuroptera of 

 these islands. So far as G-uernsey is concerned I received valuable 

 assistance from Mr. A¥. A. Luff, of St. Peter Port, when engaged on 

 the " Revision and Synopsis of the European Tricliopteray I recently 

 had the pleasure of making his personal acquaintance, and of finding 

 that he possesses, both in Triclioptera and in Neuroptera generally, a 

 considerably larger number of species than have been recorded, and 

 he will hereafter furnish a complete list of those found by him in that 

 island. My own notes refer solely to what I myself found in Guern- 

 sey, Sark, and Jersey, during a hurried visit from the 5th to 17th of 

 September, which was luckily a period of uninterrupted fine weather. 



In two main essentials the local conditions are unfavourable 

 to K^ouropterous insects (setting on one side the metamorphic 

 geological horizon). One is the dense population, and the artifi- 

 cially high state of cultivation, both agricultural and horticultural ; 

 the other is the comparative scarcity of fresh water. The most pro- 

 ductive streams are the short ones that have their origin in the 

 precipitous south side of Guernsey and north side of Jersey — streams 

 that flow through short, deep, and wooded valleys, and are very rapid, 

 and in these cases it is usually only near their mouths that they are 

 worth working ; and even then they are apt to be covered by a dense 

 growth of brambles (especially in Guernsey), or choked by water- 

 weeds, which here attain a luxuriance far in excess of what is usual 

 in the south of England. The longer streams flowing through more 

 level country furnish very little. They are prone to lose themselves 

 in moist ground before entering the sea, due largely to the require- 

 ments of artificial irrigation. The stream in St. Peter Valley, Jersey, 

 is one of the longest in the islands, and looked promising, but it yielded 



