140 [November, 



another; no more were seen that day, and when Mr. King and I again visited the 

 spot the following week, we got but one other example. Hazel and sloe were affected 

 by it ; but possibly it occurs on almost any aphidiferous tree or shrub. As far as is 

 borne out by careful search over the parts of the Grlen, the area of occurrence is 

 co-extensive with that of Adicella Jilicornis, therefore restricted to one well-sheltered 

 little corner. Not the least noteworthy point in connection with these captures is 

 that the locality cannot be looked on as new, for Curtis mentions a specimen taken 

 about fifty years ago by H. Walker near Lanark, which town is only two miles or 

 so distant from the spot where our examples were taken. 



I give here the substance of an interesting communication received from Mr. 

 McLachlan, concerning the occurrence of this insect in Britain. It is indicated as 

 British in Turton's edition of Linne (Syst. Nat.), 1806 ; but Turton included a 

 good many striking things as British that were never confirmed. Leach constituted 

 the genus Drepanepteryx in the Edinb. Encyc, 1815, probably from the citation in 

 Turton. Curtis refers to the example taken by Walker ; and Stephens figures one 

 taken by Little at Eaehills. In the Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., New Series, vol. i, p- 

 xlvi (Jan. 6th, 1851), we read : — "Mr. Douglas, on the part of Mr. Allis, exhibited 

 a specimen of the rare Neuropterous insect D. phalcenoides, taken by him at Bow- 

 ness." And in McLachlan's Monograph of the British Neuroptera-Planipennia, 

 the author refers to an example in his own collection taken at Windermere by 

 Mr. Strouvelle. If Turton's citation be excluded as doubtful, we have, with those 

 now recorded for the first time, seven British examples in all. The ascertained dis- 

 tribution appears to be entirely western, limited on the north and south by the 

 Clyde and Lake District respectively. On the continent it is said to be not un- 

 common, and very widely distributed. — Kennkth J. Mokton, High Street, Carluke : 

 October, 1885. 



Is Megalodontes {or Tarpa) plagiocephalus, Fab., really British ? — Mr. Cameron, 

 in the last number of this Magazine at page 119, introduces the above named species 

 as British on the authority of a specimen in Shuckard's collection, bearing a label 

 marked " from the British collection, Brit. Mus., Ap. 16, 42." Among the Aculeates 

 which I possess from Shuckard's collection, I have three species bearing tickets iden- 

 tical with that described by Cameron, viz., Crabro clypeatus S a^^d ? , Cerceris auritus, 

 r., = Ferreri, Y. d. L., <? and $ , and C. sabulosus, Pz., J . The first of these is of 

 extreme rarity in England, Shuckard in his " Fossorial Hymenoptera," p. 133, only 

 mentioning " ^ in the collection of the British Museum," and Smith, "Cat. Brit. 

 Foss. Hym.," &c., p. 154, only recording his own captures of a (? and ? at Weybridge, 

 in 1848 and 1853. The second is not recorded as British either by Shuckard or 

 Smith, and has not yet found a place in our lists ; the third is not a great rarity 

 although much commoner on the Continent than in this country. Now the fact that 

 E. Smith, who was so well acquainted with the British Museum collection, does not 

 mention any specimens in it in support of the claims of these species to a place in 

 our list, is I think clear proof that he did not consider their claims sufficiently valid, 

 and I think we should pause before admitting into our list a species, merely on the 

 authority of " the British collection of the British Museum." No locality is given, 

 and if Megalodontes plagiocephalus be accepted on such authority, Cerceris Ferreri 

 should be so also, and the latter is such a distinct, well-marked species, that it could 



