200 [September, 



little species was on June 13tli, 1905, when I came upon it running in 

 numbers over the trunk of a small oak tree in Stoke Wood. All the 

 specimens I secured were males. 



Bufifrons. — One female only captured in Stoke Wood 30/8/OG. 

 The short costal ciliation gives to some of the species in this Section 

 a strong likeness to the short ciliated group in C, and none perhaps 

 more so than riififrnvH. The only species, however, in that group 

 for which our insect might be mistaken is s^irdifmns. But the marked 

 difference in the length of the costa — conspicuously less than half the 

 wing length in the one and l^arely short of it in the other (at least in 

 the female), and the very different proportions of the costal divisions, 

 clearly differentiate them. At one time I was inclined to think it 

 might be the female of the preceding species. But against that idea 

 had to be set such considerations as the shorter costal fringe, the 

 darker and coarser veins, and the arched and more distinctly ciliated 

 hind tibiae, not to mention the great contrast in colour and the 

 unlikelihood that so pale a form should exist of the dark and black 

 fronted gregaria. The depression in the outline of the costa may 

 possibly be accidental, but the fact of its being the same on both 

 wings favours the view that it is natural. 



Pectoralis. — This small and deep black insect I take plentifully 

 all over my district and in every month of the year from May to 

 October. As in ciliata, serpmlis and some others, so in pedoraJis 

 I usually confirm its identification on removal from the killing-bottle 

 by looking for the large and remarkable bristle on the mesopleurse. 

 This bristle will be found close imder the root of the wing. It seems 

 to be quite distinct from the ordinary bristles, and in the fresh state 

 lies close against the side, directed horizontally backwards instead of 

 sloping diagonally upwards as they do. Wliere one of the ordinary 

 bristles is enlarged, as, for instance, in pleuralis, it retains its diagonal 

 upward direction, and is, I think, always one of those at the lower 

 corner of the patch. Hence as a character it is less reliable than the 

 other. 



Involuta. — Mr. Collin was the first to recognise, and suggest the 

 name of, this species ; and from his specimens (three males and one 

 female) my description was chiefly di-awn. His dates and localities 

 were: — for the males Newmarket 28/6/94, 10/9/09, and Kirtlmg 

 1/3/06, for the female Kirtling 7/3/06. Since then he writes me that 

 he took a pair at Chippenham Fen 7/3/10, and a little later obtained 

 it in numbers by beating a box tree in his garden at Newmarket. Of 

 a pair of my own, the female is a good specimen and was taken by 



