172 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Thomson also adduces a slight comparative difference in the 

 sexual characters, which seems to be borne out. In any case 

 the two are easily separated. The limbata is to me the com- 

 moner species. Variations in the colouring of the legs is 

 not uncommon, some being nearly wholly black. 



23. palUdus, F. (1787). Mars. 90. 2^—3 lines.— Black ; 

 elytra and legs pale yellowish ; thorax small, narrowed iu 

 front. This very elegant species is universally abundant in 

 the spring. The variety generally described, with the elytra 

 darker at the apex, seems to be very rare in this country. 



24. elongatus, Fall. (1807). Mars. 96. 2— 2^- lines. — 

 Black ; base of the antennae and of the tibiae pale*. Hitherto 

 sent only from Scotland, where it is found wiih T. paludosus. 

 It is equally common in Sweden, but rarer in Germany. The 

 atra, i., for which this is often mistaken, differs by its smaller 

 size and its pale tibiae, and the transverse thorax. This spe- 

 cies is generally considered a native of England, but I believe 

 that no example exists on which a claim can be founded. 

 That it will occur in Scotland cannot be doubted. 



Silis rnJicolUs, F. (1792). Mars. 105. 2^—3 lines.— Black ; 

 thorax and abdomen red, the former unequal ; the sides den- 

 tate in the male ; antennae subserrate. This easily-recognized 

 species is rare, or at least local, in this country, and indeed 

 appears to be nowhere common. In Norfolk I have seen it 

 in some abundance, as also in all the fens about Cambridge : 

 it generally appears in July. In the North of Germany, on 

 the Vaccinium, an allied species is found, — S. nitidula, F. — 

 which has the thorax black iu the male and impuuctate. 



G. R. Crotch. 



University Library, Cambridge. 



The Life-history of Lipara lucens, a Dipteron new to 

 Britain. — In the month of May, 1858, I observed that 

 Arundo Phragmites (common reed) was tenanted by some 

 insect I had not seen before. On collecting the panicles and 

 opening them I found full-fed larvae and pupae of some 

 dipterous insect. In the upper joint or shoot of the seed was 

 a curiously-formed cone or spiral-shaped mass : the leaves, 

 and in fact all the top that should form the flower or panicle, 



