1908.] 237 



revolve round one another. Their gyrations carried them near the Crabro, and as 

 the S passed close to and with his back turned to her— P O U N C E, and she 

 seized him ! I tried to box Mistress Crabro and her victim, bat she dropped into 

 the long grass ; so I had not even the satisfaction of adding them to Professor 

 Poulton's biological series. 



This tragedy will serve, however, as a peg on which to hang an inquiry. At 

 the Conversazione of the lioyal Society held in July last Mr. Enoch gave an exhi- 

 bition of predaecous Hymenoptera and their prey. In the illustrations of the 

 exhibit, reproduced in some of the weekly papers, one is given of a Crabro on the 

 wing pursuing a fly, the illustration apparently being the reproduction of an inci- 

 dent, as recorded by the Cinematograph The pursuit and capture of other insects 

 on the wing by predaceous insects seems, however, to be so rare (it is one for which 

 I have personally been for many years on the look out for) that I hope to draw out 

 the experience of others. 



It is almost an every day occurrence to see a Crabro lying in wait on an 

 Umbellifer head, or on a cake of eowdung, and pouncing on any unwary fly which 

 comes within reach ; but. on these occasions the method pursued is always that of 

 lying "doggo" and never that of hawking. The tragic fate of our gallant little 

 gentleman is nothing unusual, the pathos lies in its having overtaken him in the 

 midst of his love-making.— J. W. Yerbury, Bridgend : August 5th, 1908. 



Callicera senea, F., in South Wales. — Callicera xnea is such a rare insect, that 

 any instance of its occurrence seems worthy of being placed on record. It may 

 interest some of your readers, therefore, to know that I took a female specimen on 

 blackberry blossom on the Aberavon Golf Links, Port Talbot, on July 28th. — Id. : 

 August 18th, 1908. 



Nephrocerus flavicornis, Ztt.—Mtvr sending off my note concerning this 

 Dipteron which appeared in the last number, I took another female on August 13th. 

 This time it came in at an open window and settled on the glass. — F. C. Adams, 

 Fern Cottage, Lyndhurst : September, 1908. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History Society : 

 Thursday, July 23rd, 1908.— Mr. Alfred Sich, F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Sich exhibited Cerostoma xylostella ? , and said that it was bred from 

 a larva without the broad reddish stripes down the back, which form he said might 

 be sexual. Mr. Turner, living larvae in their curiously contorted cases of the very 

 rare Coleophura siccifolia taken by Mr. Sich and himself at Chiswick ; he also 

 showed a large number of Pyralidae from North America. Mr. Newman, a living 

 hybrid larva, Smerinthus ocellalus-popali, and noted its distinct characters ; he 

 also showed bred specimens of Argynnis paphia var. valesina, Boarmia repandata 

 var. conversaria (produced in the third generation), and the yellow form of Colli- 

 morpha dominula (also of the third generation). Mr. Adkin, series of Ay Una 

 semibrunnea and X. socia, and read notes on the differentiation of the two species, 



