182 THK ENTOMOLOGIST. 



almost at the same siiot. This time it had f-ecuved a male 

 Sphecodes rnli/roiiif, Thorns. — also an Aculeate hyinenopteron. x\. 

 female S. scotirinn was caugbt, on August 10th. feeding on a 

 sma,il Dipteron — a fen');ile of the Syiphid Mehinostomn melinuui, 

 Linn.* 



On August 10th I paid a visit to Crockford Pond to see if hy 

 any chance Sif)iip<'trii.'i: fnn>cnl())nbii, Selys, or any other migrant 

 dragonfly was present, hut found none. Those seen were: S. 

 striolatuni ; S. scoticuiii, ; Oi'thetraiii ccertilexceux, Ffihw . I. degana, 

 and its var. rufeacen^, Leach ; and P. tendhnn, one. 



That intere-ting locality. Marlhorounh Deeps, was visited on 

 August 16th, when the diagonflies met with were: E. ci/tithi- 

 geiam ; L. spom^a, counnon ; P. trnelliDii, one; S. strioUitum, 

 common : 0. c(sriil''scenx, one, apparently but recently emerged : 

 C. anji.iilat'is, one, at rest as the sun was not shining; and 

 .Eschna cijanea, Aliiil. Of the last I caught four. ^?chnas 

 were, in fact, numerous, l)ut whether all were of this species I am 

 not certain, a-! they are not always eas I lydistinguisiied on the wing. 



Towards the end of August and at the i)eginning of September, 

 dragonilies were less frequent, as was to be expecteci, this being 

 the time chielly for the late snecies tne .Eschnas and Sympetra. 

 C. aiinuldtiia. however, remained fairly common. On September 

 6th, near Denny Bog, ,S'. scotlcu'ii was plentiful ; S. striolatuni 

 was also found commonly that day, and a, couple of ^schnas 

 were seen. S. striolatiiui in September and October is a very 

 common insect in ihe New Foi-est. On Sejitember 10th, at the 

 sandiiills in the south-west corner of the Forest, an .iLschna 

 jancea, Linn, (judging by a s-ight of it when it settled), kept 

 flying round and near me. It was busily feeding, «but as I had 

 no net I failed to secure it. Not every insect was accepted as' 

 prey, for it let one go that it attacked. Suddenly a, hawk, or 

 some such large bird, flew no from the further side of the sand- 

 hill and made for the dragonfly, but failed in its stroke, or saw 

 me and turned away. Possibly it may have taken the insect for 

 a small bird, and, having neen its mistake, did not take it ; or, 

 could it have been intending to make the dragonfly its prey ? 



Mr. E. B. Nevinson tells me that he took his first A. iiuperator 

 at Oxshott, Surrey, on June 9th. On July l'2th it was abundant 

 locally in the New Forest, Mr. Le Marchant and himself takmg 

 eleven in half an hour. He captured a female ^Eschna mixta, 

 Latr., at Surbiton in a garden near the station on August 14th, 

 and sixteen males, September 8th-29th, at Oxshott and Ockham. 

 He also took a male L. qaadrimaculata at the Black Pond, Surrey, 

 on September 16th, a very late date for the species. A female 

 .E. grandis wgi,s secured by him on September 29th. 



* In all three cases the prey was named for me by Mr. A. H. Hamm, and the 

 insects were added to Prof. Poulton's collection of " Predaceous Insects and their 

 Prey." 



