/ 



62 ' [August, 



only took two or three specimens. Agapanthia lineatocollis stridulates very dis- 

 tinctly ; the peduncle of the elytra is quite smooth in the centre, but is marked with 

 striae on each side ; these rub against corresponding striae on the interior base of the 

 prothorax, and so the noise is produced. I thought, at first, that the head might 

 have something to do with the sound, as in some species of Languria ; but, on re- 

 moving the head from a dead specimen, I found that I could produce the noise by 

 moving the thorax up and down. This beetle, when handled, gives out a rather 

 strong smell, which I can only compare to the suffocating smell produced by certain 

 kind of candles when blown out and allowed to smoulder. — Id. : July loth, 1885. 



Acidota cruentata, Mann., at ChisioicJc. — I took, some little time ago, at Bedford 

 Park, Chiswick, a little beetle which was unknown to me. I sent it to Mr. E. Saunders, 

 and he informs me that it is the above. Has this species been found elsewhere in 

 the west Metropolitan district ? — T. D. A. Cockekell, 51, Woodstock Road, 

 Bedford Park : July 1th, 1885. 



JSgialia rufa. Fab. — I had the good fortune to capture four specimens of this 

 scarce beetle yesterday (June 2nd) on the Wallasey Sandhills. This species was 

 first recorded as British from the same locality by Mr. Frank Archer, of Liverpool, 

 in 1862, since which time only two specimens have been taken that I am aware of, 

 and those by Mr. Wilding last June. One of the specimens taken yesterday I 

 caught flying (it looked like a Coccinella), and the remaining three I found dead, 

 killed by the intensely hot sun. — J. W. Ellis, 101, Everton Road, Liverpool : 

 June 3rd, 1885. 



Note on Scolgtus prnni, Ratz., and some attendants. — The old apple-tree which 

 I mentioned on a former occasion (Ent. Mo. Mag., xix, p. 118) as being afflicted by 

 Schizonenra lanigera and Mytilaspis pomorum maintained its vitality against the 

 annually renewed attacks of its insect-foes, yet with decreasing energy, until last 

 year ; then the one side that remained alive put forth leaves, but this was the 

 expiring effort ; misfortunes had reached a climax, and now the tree is dead. The 

 chief cause of decease, I do not doubt, was a radical malady which had induced in 

 the structure of the tree conditions favourable to the existence of its insect enemies. 

 And there were more than I have yet mentioned, for on the 21st ult., on stripping 

 off the bark still covered with the scales of llytilaspis and all hanging loose on the 

 trunk, but containing nothing alive, I found the tree, on the side that was living last 

 year, transversely scored with long, frass-filled, characteristic galleries of larvae of a 

 Scolytus, which may be taken as their hieroglyphic memorial of the accumulated ills 

 of the tree, inscribed as an epitaph — De mortuis nil nisi malum. I secured some six 

 or seven of the beetles just perfected, which were still each in the frass-closed 

 cul-de-sac its larva had formed in the hard wood at the end of its gallery. The 

 beetles were in every case in a reverse position to that of the engineering larva, 

 being head forwards ready to come ovit, but not being willing to emerge for my 

 pleasm'e, I had to cut them out ; one flew away immediately, and I lost one or two 

 others. Each cell was horizontal, and just a little longer and wider than the beetle, 

 and the orifice was perfectly circular. The Scolytus proved to be S. pruni, Ralz., a 



