38 J"iy. 



ordinary species abounded ; setting aside the Solenopsls, however, my best find wa 

 two specimens of Ponera contracta, which I obtained by splitting the chalky base o 

 the cliff. I also found this rarity at Ventnor, in one case under a stone below higl 

 water mark ; it is excessively sluggish, and I never found more than one in the sani 

 spot.— W. W. FowLEB, Lincoln : June 9th, 1884. 



Curious hahit of Osmia bicolo}\ Schk. — I was out collecting on the 28th ultc 

 on the slope of one of our hills, the morning was very bright and hot, and a bris 

 wind was blowing. Owing to the dry weather we had lately experienced, the vegt 

 tation was more scant than usual, but the Helianthemum and the Lotus were i 

 bunches of bloom. I had been collecting bees for some days previously in the woo 

 skirting this slope, and had met with Osmia bicolor ? , but could not meet with th 

 S , so thought I would try the dry slope of the hill. I had not been standing aboi 

 there many minutes, when I saw the female of the bee coming towards me carryin 

 in her jaws a bit of dry bent some four inches long, holding it in the middle, jus 

 exactly as an acrobat would carry a balancing pole to steady himself. As she cam 

 past me I secured her in my net with the bent in her mouth, which, when she foun 

 she was caught, she immediately dropped. Soon after this I saw another an 

 another engaged in tlie same business ; they would settle down momentarily on tl 

 ground, seize hold of a short bent, and start away with it in the direction of tl 

 wood below. I saw this done at least twenty times by as many bees, and secure 

 most of them. The moment I saw the first bee with the bent, I recollected I ha 

 observed the same habit last year, but I had not then so good an opportunity i 

 watching the bees as now. I at first came to the conclusion that this had somethin 

 to do with their nidification, but am now very doubtful on tliis point, as the sair 

 day I discovered this bee making its nidus in the shell of Helix nemoralis, and ca}, 

 tured the bee in the whorl of the shell. I shall be very glad to know if this habi 

 has been noticed by others, and, if so, what suggestions they may have to offer, asi 

 fancy the habit must be peculiar as well as strange. — V. R. Perkins, Wotton-undeh 

 Edge : June 6th, 1884. 



Lecaniiim cesculi. — On sheltered paling under young hor&e-chestnut tv&i 

 {^sculus) I, this morning (shade-temperature 78° Fahr.), found a newly-emerge 

 male of a Lecanium, which I take to be L. cesculi, KolL, sec. Signoret, Ess. Cocbi 

 p. 242. It agrees very well with Signoret's description and his figure, pi. xii, fig. 12 

 it also conforms to Curtis' figure of Coccus aceris (Brit. Ent., pi. 717), which Siji 

 noret says {op. cit., p. 14) is truly Lecanium aceris, Schrank. Signoret, whiii 

 admitting that L. aceris, auct., and L. cesculi, KolL, are very much alike, finds di 

 ferences which he deems to be specific ; from paucity of material I can offer i 

 opinion on the point ; certainly Signoret's figures of tlie tAvo species, as understoc 

 by him, are not alike. 



The scales on the sycamore and horse-chestnut are, sexually, very different! 

 form and size, yet very similar on the two kinds of tree. I have often found the 

 during winter and spring on the lowest and most sheltered young branches of th© 

 trees, where, doubtless, there is less chance of their being rubbed off by the casualtit 

 of winter than if placed on the higher branches, but I have always failed to 

 the males from the scales removed and kept in glass tubes, and never till now 

 tured or saw one of these rarities.— J. W. Douglas, 8, Beaufort GTardens, Lcwishaui 

 Mayi lOt/i, 1884. 



