NOTES ON SCOTCH AND OTHER PROCTOTRYPID.E. 99 



four to be found there after a few miniites, whilst plenty flew in 

 and out amons^ the stunted bushes near, or sunned on the flowers, 

 so I made an attempt to get a few, and very puzzling they are. 

 One very nice Mclitaca dicti/nna was taken at the same spot. The 

 purely British collector could have walked up a nice lot of Acidalia 

 oniata, and those who liked " bloodveins " would have found a good 

 many of one beautiful species, whose name for the moment has 

 escaped me. So one wandered on to the village of Brugnasco and to 

 the pine-forest beyond, where lunch was eaten in the shade on the 

 bilberry-covered ground — and, when lunch and the bilberries were 

 finished, an afternoon crawl back over the same ground was very 

 delightful. I'm afraid I'm a lazy sort of entomologist and cover too 

 few miles for half the fraternity, but there it is ; this is what I saw 

 on the slopes at Brugnasco on one of the loveliest days that ever 

 existed, and I feel satisfied. 



Notes on Scotch and other Proctotrypidae. 



By the late ARTHUK .J. CHITTY, M.A., F.E.S. 

 (Edited by Claude Morley, F.E.S.) 



The AnnaU of Scottish Natural Hi^turij has recently published two 

 parts of a list of the Scottish O.cyura or Proctotnjp'ulae present in the 

 collection of Mr. Cameron, by whom the articles are written. These 

 lists are very welcome. Mr. Cameron's collection has been in the 

 hands of Dr. Kieffer for the purposes of the doctor's work on the 

 European species, published in Andre's " Species des Hymenopteres 

 d'Europe et d'Algerie," so a large number of Mr. Cameron's specimens 

 apparently form the types of Kieffer's insects, some of which have only 

 been taken by Mr. Cameron. 



The lists are somewhat startling. Dr. Kiett'er's method of dealing 

 with the older names has been summary. The descriptions of a large 

 number of those of Walker and Haliday (the types of which were sunk 

 in the Bristol Channel) have been pronounced by hnu as insufficient. 

 In their place he has raised up in his great work a host of new species, all 

 properly worked out and tabulated. Dr. Kieffer has hardly been more 

 considerate with the names assigned to the British species by the Rev. 

 T. A. Marshall. A large number of them are now pronounced not to 

 apply to the British insects at all, and specimens so named are often 

 relegated to two or three new species of Kieffer. If Mr. Cameron's 

 collection contains so many new species forming quite a large pro- 

 portion of those recognised by Dr. Kieffer, there must be many, more 

 new species awaiting discovery, and the total number of these insects 

 must be very large. More collectors of the group are accordingly 

 particularly necessary, and now that lists and tables are forthcoming, 

 there should be less difficulty in working out the specimens, and 

 deciding Avhat specimens belong to new species, a task hitherto im- 

 possible in this country without great risk of error. 



It is a pity that Mr. Cameron's valuable lists do not give more 

 information, a reference to the place where the description could be 

 found if; almost indispensable if the lists are to be used for practical 

 purposes ; and dates and numbers of specimens caught would be 

 useful. Though these insects at times appear in great numbers, as a 

 rule only one or two specimens of the same species are taken by 



