1868. J . 233 



thorax, transversely orbiculate, closely punctured. The thorax narrower than 

 the elytra, longer than broad, rather narrowed behind ; with straight sides, the 

 anterior angles almost acute, the posterior rounded, and a polished medial longi- 

 tudinal line. The elytra shorter than the thorax, and, with the scutellum, 

 exceedingly closely punctured. The abdomen thickly and delicately punctured. 

 The legs pitchy-black, with the tarsi and the tips of the tibiae rather testaceous. 

 Hab. Peterhead, Northern Scotland, 



No comparison of either of these species with any other of those previously 

 known in their respective genera is made by M. Reiche ; and, seeing how closely 

 the Patrohi known to us are allied, I confess I do not imagine any one is very 

 likely to find M. Beiche's first description of much avail. The species stands in De 

 Marsenl's Cat. between excavatus and assimilis (clavipes Thorns.) In the same 

 Cat. the Ocypus is located between morio and compressus. — E. C. Rye, 7, Park Field, 

 Putney, S.W., February, 1868. 



Notes on the gall of Spircea xdmaria. — During the months of summer, the 

 leaves of Spircea ulmaria (common Meadow Sweet), are often thickly besot with 

 a minute gall. On the upper-side of the leaf it is hemispherical, nearly smooth, 

 pinkish in hue, and about tlie size of half a mustard seed. Under the leaf they 

 are quite different, being produced into a short snout-like cone. This is very 

 pubescent, and its apex is slightly dilated, as in the gall of the cornel leaf. On 

 opening the gall with care, and inspecting it with a lens, a minute urn-shaped case 

 exactly the form of a cone shell may be seen. Its texture is papery ; its colour 

 yellowish-pink. The larva within this case is of an orange colour when the gall is 

 in an advanced stage. The sharp point of the base of the cases often, if not always, 

 projects from the dilated end of the snout-like development mentioned above. 

 The larvse sometimes quit their galls, but whether this is usual, or only takes place 

 when the galls are gathered, I do not know. In 1865 I obtained galls on July 25th. 

 The first gnats emerged on August 29th. Galls obtained on August 1st, 1866, 

 produced gnats on the 10th, 13th, and 16th of the same month. About this date 

 the galls disappeared, but on October 13th I obtained a good supply. These I take 

 to be a second brood of gnats. The body of this lively little Cecidomyia is a light 

 reddish hue, nearly approaching that of the leaf stalk of the Meadow Sweet. — 

 H. W. KiDD, Godalming, February, 1868. 



*^* These little galls are the work of Cecidomyia ulmarice, Bremi. Vide Bremi, 

 " Beitriige zu einer Monographie der Gallmilcken" (1847), p. 52, 9; Winnertz, 

 " Beitrag zu einer Monographie der Gallmiioken," in the Linnsea Entomologica 

 1853, p. 240, 27 ; &c. — R.McLachlan. , 



The larva of Stathmopoda pedella at Stettin. — On a dry part of the fortifications 

 at Stettin there is a plantation of grey alders (Alnus incana), a sjaecies of tree 

 which, as far as I know, does not grow wild there. At the end of last September 

 I sought here, in company with Dr. Schleich, for the larvas of Stathmopoda pedella, 

 in the alder berries. We soon ascertained that the brown or black spots wliich 

 were distinctly visible in the gathered berries, were caused by the larva which 



