18 [January, 



no suggestion whatever that I had possesed larvas feeding in heads of tansy, or 

 had reared any imagines therefrom, and, as a matter of fact, the "two friends" 

 alluded to in Ent. Eee., i, 326, as having obtained the larviB in tansy in Scot- 

 land, were Messrs. S. T. Ellison and W. Herd, then residing in Perth and its 

 neighbourhood. My only share in the matter was the identification of some of 

 the perfect insects, the first, an unusually large and well-marked one, being 

 submitted to me, ciu'iously enottgh, because the gentlemen just named doubted 

 the accuracy of Mr. C. G. Barrett's determination of it as H. hinxvella .' After 

 Mr. Tutt (Ent. Eec, i, 326, foot-note) had called in question my statement about 

 tansy as a food-plant, it was Mr. Ellison who informed me that ragwort was 

 certainly not known as " tansy " in the Perth district, and that, as he had 

 previously told me {in litt.) the larva.^ there fed in heads of both these plants, 

 the former being " Senecio jacobsea" and the latter " Tanacetvmi vulgare." A 

 reference to my correspondence with Mr. Ellison sliows that, whereas Mr. Herd 

 found the larvae fairly plentiful, as a rule, in both food-plants, he himself 

 usually found them more sparingly. In variovis seasons a few imagines had 

 been bred by them, but I never heard whether my suggestion that the seed- 

 heads should be kept out of doors produced improved results, as should have 

 been the case. In Ent. Eec, i, 326, Mr. Tutt I'eproduces my statement {in litt.) 

 to him that " Two friends of mine who obtain the larvae in tansy heads in 

 Scotland, find them scarce, which looks as if they are no more inclined to be 

 gregarioiis than nimbella." When writing this, I was imder the false im- 

 pression that both Mr. Ellison and Mr. Herd had only found the larvae very 

 sparingly in the Pert!: district. — Id. : November loth, 1909. 



The Host of Hedychridiuni coriaceum, Dhb. — Two years ago I recorded in 

 this Magazine the occurrence of Hedychridium coriaceum in the New Forest, in 

 company with Crabro albilabris, Fab. At that time the species was new to me, 

 and as I was anxious to secvire all the specimens I could see, I did not pay 

 suflicient attention to its habits to be able to say with any certainty that it 

 was parasitic on Crabro albilabris, although I saw it enter the bvurows of that 

 Fossor. 



Mr. Morice expressed a doubt as to its being parasitic on a Crabro, as our 

 other three species, H. roseum, U. ardens, and H. integrum, are parasitic on such 

 very different sections of the Sphegidm. 



I therefore determined to pay some attention to the matter this August, 

 and my friend Mr. Hamm did the same. Although we are not able to fiu-nish 

 the absolute proof, viz., by breeding, that this Fossor is the host, yet the addi- 

 tional evidence obtained points that way. 



This Chrysid is foimd in a very limited area on a sandy and gravelly patli 

 some two hundi-ed yards long. At the time this Chrysid is about, the following 

 species are fomid biu-rowing in the ruts and sides of the piith. Pscn bicolor, 

 Crabro albilabris, Halictus leiicozonius, minutissimus, and tumulo7-um and Panur- 

 gus calcaratus and ursinus. 



The last two species and the Halicti, except minutisstnuis, are far too lai'ge 

 to be the host of this small Chrysid, and need not be considered. 



if. coriaceum was not plentiful, but Mr. Hiimm and I sjDent some hours on 



