186 l August, 



" Is Scoparia dubitalis a root- or a moss-feeder 1 " — In Lho last volume of this 

 Magazine (p. 42) I asked the question " Is Scoparia dubitalis a root- or a moss- 

 feeder ?" giving my own small experience and that of the late William Maehin. 

 As no answer appeared I endeavoured to find one myself. On May 7th last I paid 

 a visit to a spot where I noticed the imago Hying abundantly at dusk last summer 

 and commenced pulling up the roots of Rumex acetosella without any success ; as 

 there was no moss to examine I tried the decayed vegetable matter and at once 

 found a larva (a very dingy one even for a Scoparia !) feeding just beneath the 

 surface under a very slight web ; upon placing it with a handful of its food in 

 a glass vase it obligingly spun its web against the side and fed for two or three more 

 days, as quite a pile of frass testified, and then left, to spin up in a neat little earth- 

 covered cocoon of grey silk, about an inch from where it had been feeding. A $ 

 appeared on June 9th. From the above remarks it would seem that the larva is 

 neither a moss- nor root-feeder, unless my solitary larva differed in its taste from its 

 brethren. I quite expected to find it feeding in spun-together roots of R. aceto- 

 sella — \. Thurnall, Thornton Heath: July 3rd, 1908. 



Tachytes pectinipes, Linn., and its prey. — As evidence about the prey of this 

 species seems conflicting (vide Saunders' llymenoptera Aculeata, p. 80), it may be 

 well to put on record the capture of a specimen here which was storing a good sized 

 grasshopper. It was dragging the semi-paralyzed Orthopteron, about six times its 

 own weight, by a series of rapid dashes up the face of an almost perpendicular rock 

 to its burrow in a sandy crevice seven feet high. — Willoughby Gardner, Deganwy, 

 North Wales : July \0th, 1908. 



Nomada guttulata at Sivanage, Dorset. — Both sexes of this rare inquiline were 

 visiting the flowers of Veronica channedrys on the cliffs in the early part of last 

 June. It seemed, however, to be rare there as elsewhere, for I saw no more than 

 seven specimens in as many days devoted solely to it. Close observation of two 

 colonies (in full working order) of Andrena cingulata, on which, according to Frieso, 

 N. guttulata is probably parasitic, produced nothing to support his view ; on the 

 other hand, the burrows of A. nana, which was the only other Andrena patronising 

 the Veronica, seemed equally unattractive to the Nomada. Such specimens as I 

 took might easily be passed over, both during flight and at rest, for large examples 

 of N.Jlavoguttata. — C. H. Mortimer, Hohnwood : July, 1908. 



Metatropis rufescens, Herr.-Schf., in the New Forest. — In the latter half of 

 June I found a good many adult specimens (often in pairs) of this very elegant bug, 

 by sweeping a small patch of Circxa luteliana under the beech trees at Wood 

 Fidley, New Forest. None, however, were seen in any of the earlier stages. In the 

 sweeping-net Metatropis bears a strong superficial resemblance to one of the small 

 light coloured Tipulidsc of the genus Limnobia so common in damp shady places, 

 and is exceedingly active, taking readily to wing, though fortunately it is by no 

 means as fragile as its delicate appearance would lead one to suppose. — J. J. Walker, 

 Oxford : July IQth, 1908. 



