78 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Around a tench-preserve I found a series of beetle-eaten ash 

 and ehn rails, which I forthwith attacked, and soon found a 

 profusion of an insect by no means common, Hylesinus vit- 

 tatus, affeciing indifferently ash and elm : there were abun- 

 dance of both perfect insects and larva;. On breaking up 

 the bark I at last found an elytron of Nemosonia. I observed 

 that it was in a piece of e/wz-bark; and on persevering in my 

 hunt I was soon rewarded by getting the perfect insect. 

 I then spent an hour or two in investigating its history. I 

 very soon found the larva, a reddish active creature, wilh a 

 thoroughly Coleopterous horny head. On peeling off sheets 

 of the bark I saw a large number of these larva), and found 

 comparatively few (some twenty) of the perfect insect, mani- 

 festly in a state of hybernation ; for, although 1 cut out with 

 the greatest care only those which were exposed, I found 

 some four or five of them with imperfect tarsi and antennae, 

 and the stump discoloured and as it were cicatrized, proving 

 clearly that the injury was an old one. 



This insect is said to be parasitic upon the Hylesinus vit- 

 tatus,justas Collydium elongatum is upon Platypus cylindrus, 

 and I think that this is very probable ; for the whole bark was 

 literally alive with the Hylesinus vittatus and its larva ; but 

 every specimen of the Nemosoma which 1 found, had bur- 

 rowed transversely across the bark, so as to come into con- 

 tinual contact with the larva3 of Hylesinus and their ex- 

 cretion. These larvae were all burrowing longitudinally. On 

 removing the bark I exposed I may say hundreds of these 

 larvae, and, having an idea that I might be able to breed 

 them, 1 ceased breaking up the flakes, and packed them face 

 to face, and so brought them home. I found that in trans- 

 ferring them Qio larvce had fallen outy whilst all those which 

 I had seen had disappeared, and were no doubt pursuing 

 their usual course in the substance of the bark or the burrows 

 of the Hylesinus ; and I fully expect that there are many 

 more than what 1 saw, and that 1 shall be able to breed out, 

 in May or June, a considerable supply of this rare creature; 

 for the bark still remains in a first-rale condition, and I 

 brought home an abundant sujiply of it. 



At Whatcote, in a pit in one of the glebe-fields, 1 also 

 took a considerable number of specimens of an Hemipterous 

 insect, Corixa prseusta, and a few of C. limitata, neither of 



