issi.] 159 



At Boxhill, during a hurried visit at the end of May, Lema puncticollis, Lam- 

 prosoma concolor, and Cryptocephalus coryli, turned up in the sweeping net. 



From Belvedere, Kent, I obtained Hylotrupes bajulus (2) and Donacia lemncB 

 in abundance. 



A visit to Aylsham, Norfolk, for a fortnight in May, produced Bry chins elevatus, 

 Liopterus ruficollis, Cercus bipustulatus (plentiful), Poophagus sisymbrii, 0)'chestes 

 ilicis, Donacia dentipes (common), and Phyllotreta tetrastigma (several). 



Among some insects collected for me by a friend, was a fine female specimen of 

 Prionns coriarius. — Theodore Wood, 5, Selwyn Terrace, Jasper Road, Upper 

 Norwood, S.E. : November, 1881. 



A note from Japan. — The extract I give below from a post-card recently received 

 from Mr. Lewis is interesting anthropologically, as well as from a naturalist's point 

 of view. That an Englishman should be successfully pursuing Natural History 

 researches in the interior of Japan, and that he should be able to transmit thence 

 information of his successes on a post-card in the course of eight weeks to Scotland, 

 is a most striking illustration of the progress of civilization. — D. Sharp, Thornhill : 

 October, 1881. 



"Chiuzexji : August 21s£, 1881. — There is something curious even now in 

 being able to send you a post-card from the forests of central Nipon, but here I am 

 writing by the margin of a lake 4000 ft. above the sea, with mountains around it 

 covered with vegetation, and rising another 4000 ft. at least. My last captures in- 

 clude a very nice Miscoclera, and an AtemeJes, very near paradoxus. The lake is 

 600 ft. deep, and has, in January, a belt of 20 ft. of ice ; as you walk along the 

 edge you displace the loose stones, and they fall into the water, and where your foot 

 has been, wet stones are exposed : under these stones are water-beetles, quite secure 

 from the small, but almost continuous waves of the lake. But neither species nor 

 individuals are numerous, and a couple of hours' work does not produce many 



Sericomyia borealis l( singing " tvhile at rest. — Last spring I inserted a note on 

 the oocurrtnce of Sericomyia borealis, Fall., in Sussex (Ent. Mo. Mag., April, 1881), 

 and soon after received a letter from Mr. W. Grant Guthrie, of Hawick — he wrote 

 as follows : " I venture to ask if you can give me any information as to the life- 

 history of this insect ; in particular if the strange singing noise emitted by the insect 

 when at rest, and apparently motionless, is produced by the $ alone." I know 

 nothing previously of this habit, and all I have been able to do is to corroborate Mi*. 

 Gruthrie's statement, that the " strange singing noise " is made by the male. 



"When at Dallington this year (Aug. 18) I mentioned to my companion, Mr. 

 H. F. Collett, this curious habit as described by Mr. Guthrie. He was fortunate 

 enough almost immediately to take a specimen of this insect " making the singing 

 noise when apparently at rest " — this proved to be a male. We saw no other ex- 

 ample of the species. It therefore still remains doubtful whether the female also 

 emits this sound, while I have ascertained nothing more of its life-history. Can any 

 of your readers supply information on these points ? 



Since writing the above notice, I have heard from Mr. W. G. Guthrie, who has 



