146 iJL/'JDOl'TERA. 



anc/lns, S.v., bred froui waspb' nests ( Vfs])f( s)//re.stris and 

 Polislcs (/allica), and mentioned tliat the insect was usually 

 bred from these nests at Vienna. 



" On the other hand, M. Milliere states that he has bred 

 ancllus from larvas fed on the flowers of laula hcknmm- 

 M. Chretien informed me that he had received, in the summer, 

 ova from M. Millifere, and had reared the larvee on flowers of 

 various plants ; he obtained large specimens of the imago in 

 the autumn." 



So far as I cau ascertain, this tangle is not yet cleared up, 

 but the balance of evidence seems to indicate a vegetable 

 pabulum for the (non-British) andlus, S.v., and the con- 

 tents of the nests of wasjis and bees, as the food of the 

 present species. 



Mr. Hardin?, wlio collected for sale for many years at 

 Deal, affirms that it feeds on the roots o? Ainmnphila arcnaria, 

 but furnishes no evidence whatever thereof ; and he probably 

 confused it, in this respect, with Ancradia lotclla. 



Having no personal acquaintance with this species in 

 the liviag state, I find it necessary to rely on the observa- 

 tions of others. It seems certain that it has rarely, if ever, 

 been observed upon the wing. Mr. II. J. Harding wrote 

 (1867): " If the evenings are still and warm they run up 

 the stems of this grass {Ammophila arenaria) to near the 

 top, where the males remain with wings half expanded ; the 

 females keep their wings closed ; at any disturbance they 

 drop to the ground, but never attempt to fly ; in fact, I do 

 not remember ever seeing one fly." Mr. W. H. Tugwell 

 says : " This obacnre species was to be found almost every 

 evening running up and down the grass and rush-stems ; it 

 rarely seems to fly, but with half-opened wings scuttles about 

 the tufts of grass." Mr. Sydney Webb tells me that he found 

 it on the sand hills in pairs and singly ; and Mr. A. E. Gibbs 

 states that he found it at night sitting upon the posts and 

 lower rail of a fence upon the sandhills, where, from its 



