NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 141 



until April 23rcl, and as I found a specimen of terrestris still 

 hibernating behind the bark of a fallen tree on April 16th, 1917, 

 I know that they were not out before this last date at any rate. 

 Queen wasps have also been very abundant since March 21st, 

 but Vespa vulgaris has been seen far more commonly than V. ger- 

 manica. The exceptionally fine weather during March undoubtedly 

 favoured the appearance of both wasps and bees, but the wet weather 

 lately may have seriously affected them, although I have once or 

 twice lately observed Boinhus terrestris carrying out searching 

 operations in the most unfavourable circumstances. — H. G. O. 

 Wales ; 56, Trinity Eoad, Bridlington, Yorks. 



iEscHNA MIXTA, liutr., IN SouTH Devon. — It will interest your 

 correspondent, Mr. A. H. Newton (cmtea, p. 115), to know that 

 ^Sschna mixta is probably as plentiful in South Devon as in any 

 part of Britain. As I recorded (E. M. M., November, 1902, p. 265), 

 it occurred abundantly year after year on the marshy ground at the 

 Broad Sands, Churston, and seemed to be equally so in all localities 

 having suitable aquatic conditions for many miles from there to 

 Torcross, where it was equally abundant. That was the furthest 

 point I worked during the several successive seasons I was in the 

 county in September. — Geo. T. Porritt ; Elm Lea, Dalton, Hudders- 

 field. May 10th, 1918. 



Turnip-Flea Beetles. — Aiyropos of Mr. Taylor's very interesting 

 and useful article on the turnip-flea beetles {antea, p. 83), it may be 

 worth recording that larvae of Phyllotreta undulata occurred last 

 summer in my garden here in the leaf-stalks of turnips, and that the 

 roots were untouched. The thicker lower portions of the stalks 

 were hollowed in a fair number of cases for about half an inch. 

 As regards distribution, P. yiemorum, L., seems to have a more 

 restricted southern range than P. undulata, Kuts. Bold (' Natural 

 History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham,' iv, 104), 

 quoted by Canon Fowler (' Coleoptera of the British Islands,' iv, 

 366), says that the latter is " very common in fields and gardens ; 

 this species and not P. nemorum is the ' turnip fly ' of our district " ; 

 and that the former is " rare, at least so far as my own experience 

 goes." Canon Fowler seems a little inclined to doubt this, but Mr. 

 Gardner records P. nemorum as rare in the Hartlepool district 

 (' Victoria County History of Durham,' 110) ; there are no local 

 specimens in Mr. Bagnall's collection, now in the Hancock Museum, 

 Newcastle, and in my own experience of six years in county Durham 

 I have never met with it once, although I have kept special watch 

 for it to fill the gap in my collection; in North Yorkshire, too, 1 

 have come across the species only once in six years, in the Swale 

 Valley, near Eichmond. P. undulata, however, we have all found 

 exceedingly common. Mr. Fergusson, too, in his local list of Coleop- 

 tera for " The Fauna, Flora, and Geology of the Clyde Area," quotes 

 undulata as " frequent," and gives ten localities for it, but only two 

 for nemorum. Canon Fowler {loc. cit.) quotes Dr. Sharp as- recoLding 

 the former as rare in Scotland and the latter as very common in the 

 south of the country. Under the circumstances, it would be of value 

 to have notes of the occurrence of the two species in other parts of 



