1G0 [December, 



kindly communicated the circumstances which first called his attention to the subject. 

 I give an extract from his very interesting letter : " About the middle of August 

 last year, while showing my collection of insects to Mr. Peach, of the Government 

 Geological Survey, he gave me a humorous account of a fly which had amused his 

 party while surveying in Yarrow. They had seen it mostly about the cairns] 

 on the tops of the hills. He imitated its singing, and described it as like] 

 a wasp, only twice the size. I was convinced it was something I had never seen 

 before, and could only think of the hornet, though if it were to occur so far north it 

 would scarcely make its appearance in such a situation. I felt interested, and de«j 

 termined to try and find it. 



"Yarrow, the locality mentioned, was, however, at too great a distance (twenty 

 or thirty miles) forme to reach; but I bethought me of a hill nearer at handJ 

 (fourteen miles) having something of the same physical features, with an altitude of 

 2000 feet, and covered with peat to the top. This hill I visited on the first oppor-J 

 tunity, and had been on the summit only a few minutes, when I saw a fly alight on 

 a stone, but it was 60 much smaller than I expected, that I did not at first pay much 

 attention to it. I heard the singing too, but thought it came from a great distance. •] 



" It was some time before I made out the connection between the fly and the j 

 sound ; when I did so I got excited, made a dash with my net, and — missed ! I 

 waited a long while in hopes of another chance, but had to return home without thei j 

 prize. The next Saturday I went back, and found the fly on exactly the same stone J j 

 afraid of losing it again, I did not give myself much time for observation, but cap*J 

 tured it at once, thinking to pay more attention to the next, but never saw another*! 

 I am sorry to say that the weather this season has prevented me from making any j 

 further observations." 



I may add, that Mr. Yerrall very kindly determined the insect to which Mr. I j 

 Guthrie refers, and concluded his note thus, " The Sericomyia is a J , probably the 

 singing sex." — E. N. Bloomfield, Guestling Rectory : November 11th, 1881. 



[We shall be glad to know if this habit in Sericomyia has been previously re- 

 corded. — Eds.]. 



Capture of rare Hymenoptera on the south coast of England. — Halictus quad- 

 ricincttis, Fab. — On the 3rd of September I captured four males and about a dozen 

 females of this species on the Brighton Downs, near Falmer. Also a few of tin 

 latter only near Eastbourne. Mr. F. Smith, in his " Bees of Great Britain " (1855) 

 and again in his second edition (1879), observes, that " Mr. Kirby, on the authority 

 of Dr. Latham, quotes this bee as a species of the London district (1802), but nc 

 one has met with it since to my knowledge. Mr. Dale took the female in the Isli 

 of Portland some years ago, with the exception of which, not a single specimen o 

 either sex has been taken for many years." 



Bombus soroensis, Fab. — I took two males of this species (corresponding witl 

 the .5. collinus, Sm., olim) in widely distant localities near Brighton, on the 1st and 

 3rd of September ; the first on field-flowers bj the road side near Ovingdean, the 

 second on Rubus near Falmer. Mr. Smith, in his first edition aforesaid, says, "The 

 male of this species has been long known as the Apis callumana of Kirby, but th 

 insect was very rarely seen in collections. During the month of August, 1854, ] 



