214 [September, 



Halictus freygessneriy Alfk., in N. Wales. — Mr. Edward Saunders' article in 

 Ent. Mo. .^^ag., Nov., lOOt, caused me recently to examine the specimens in my 

 collection under the label H. subfaxciatus, Nyl., with the result that my northern 

 examples prove to he frei/gessneri. They were taken as follows, viz. :— two J c? on 

 marigolds in a garden at Eyarth, Denbighshire, early in September, 1891 ; one $ 

 on wild carrot on a railway bank near Eyarth on June 4th, 1892 ; one ^ on mari- 

 gold on August 27th, 1892, in the garden where the J <? were taken the previous 

 year : the short and broad 2nd joint of the posterior tarsus is very noticeable in 

 the S Si the ? ? are rather larger and broader tlian those of fulvico mis, Kirb., 

 and have the testaceous lines across the posterior margins of the apical segments 

 very narrow.— Id, 



Heriades truncorum, Linn., near Chobham. — In September, 1900, I had the 

 pleasure of recording in the Ent, Mo. Mag. that I had taken a J of Heriades 

 truiicoruni, Linn., visiting thistles near Weybridge Station on July lOth of that 

 year. Though I have been on the look-out for the species ever since, and have 

 frequently visited the locality where 1 found it, it has never occurred again to me 

 there or elsewhere (nor, as far as I know, to any other collector in this country 

 since the days of W. Kirby and Ingali), until July 6th of this year, when I was so 

 fortunate as to take a second specimen — this time a ? — burrowing in a decayed 

 wooden post, by the side of a nearly disused cross-country road, or rather lane, near 

 Valley End, Chobham Common. I had always an uncomfortable feeling that my 

 Weybridge specimen might possibly have been imported in foreign timber; but the 

 Chobham ^ was so evidently at home in its surroundings, and those surroundings 

 were so remote from railways and in all respects so primitive and natural (as well 

 as being suited to its known habits), that there seems no reason to suspect it as a 

 foreigner. Yet it is certainly rather strange that a species, which abroad is common 

 wherever it occurs at all, should be so extraordinarily successful in eluding observa- 

 tion in this country. Possibly it is sometimes passed over as a Chelostoma Jlorisomne, 

 which (to the naked eye) it much resembles, though it is smaller and, especially, 

 shorter in proportion to its breadth. The transverse sharp carination of the Ist 

 abdominal segment distinguishes it unmistukeably from any British Chelostoma- or 

 Osmia- species, but this character can hardly be recognised till the insect is captured 

 and examined with a lens, 



M. Ferton in Corsica has observed H. truncorum collecting resin, and remarks 

 that probably all Hymenoptera which have this habit are " lies dans une region a 

 I'existence des arbres resineux." lioth at Weybridge and on Chobham Common 

 there were pine trees near the spots where my specimens occurred ; and though the 

 splendid pine woods, through which the L, & S,W.R, main line still runs in places, 

 are fast disappearing to make room for villas and golf grounds, it will be some time 

 yet, 1 hope, before modern " improvements " have made it impossible for Heriades 

 to maintain existence in this district. — F. D. MomCB, Woking : August, 1906. 



Sphecodes subquadratus burroioing. — Early this month, while looking for 

 Aculeates on Red Hill Common, I noticed a ? Sphecodes apparently making a 

 burrow in a sandy bank. Knowing that it is disputed that Sphecodes really exca- 

 vates its own burrows, I watched it for some few rainute$. The insect was scratching 



