I NOTKS AND OBSKRVATIONS. 89 



Mycetophilida have similar habits : that their hirvoe live mainly 

 in the cambian layer, between the bark and timber of rotting 

 trees and their fallen limbs. 



In my " Diptera of Suffolk " (' Trans. Norf. Nat. Soc.,' 1915, 

 Snppl., p. 180), 213 species of Mycetophilidfe are ascribed to 

 Britain, whereof 59 are recorded from Norfolk, 95 from Suffolk, and 

 119 from the two counties combined ; this paper adds 15 species to 

 the Suffolk list, bringing its total to 110 different kinds, and 

 Exechia guttiventris to the Norfolk list, making its total GO. 



Monks Sahom House, 

 Suffolk. 



NOTES AND OBSEEVATIONS. 



The Sydney Webb Collection. — Wbat's in a name ? Sbakes- 

 peare tells us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. 

 Yet we doubt whether the large number of historic specimens that 

 were sold at Stevens' Auction Eooms on March 9th, when the fourth 

 and concluding portion of the Sydney Webb Collection was disposed 

 of, would have fetched anything like the prices that they did had 

 they not had that name behind them. It is an interesting scientific 

 fact that an insect not usually occurring in this country should 

 occasiozially find its way here, and one that is worthy of being duly 

 put on record when it happens ; yet it is open to doubt whether the 

 value of such specimens is thereby so greatly increased. But the 

 prices paid seemed to indicate that more than one would-be possessor 

 of them considered that it is so. Thus, Leucania extranea made £8 ; 

 Ltiperina dumerilii £7 lOs. ; Arjrotis fiammatra £10 lOs. ; Ilarmodia 

 [Dianthcecia) covipta £6 10s. ; Miselia bimaculosa £4 5s. ; Polia zinc- 

 kcnii {lambda) £10 and £5 10s. ; two Hadena peregrina, included in a 

 lot of sundries, £6 ; Catephia alchymista £9 9s. ; and Pseudophia 

 {Ophiodes) lunaris £5 10s. and £10 10s. Nor were the other rarities 

 and "extinct" species, when in good order and well authenticated, 

 less eagerly sought after, but not otherwise. Two Synia vmsculosa 

 brought 25s. and 27s. 6(/. each, while others sold in lots with sundry 

 other species made only from 5s. to 10s. per lot. Crymodes exiilis of 

 the Scottish mainland form in lots of two realised £6, £3, and £3 per 

 lot, but for similar lots of the Shetland form 20s. and 12s. per lot was 

 paid. Males of Hydrilla pahcstris sold singly made from 25s. to 

 32s. 6d., and females 30s. to 52s. 6d. Twenty Noctua subrosea, of 

 which several were quite good specimens, sold from £10 down to 

 16s. 3d. apiece. Seven Cerastis erythrocephala in one lot ran up to 

 £9, but eight in a lot with other, things made only 45s. A lot which 

 included a varied series of Epunda hchdenta and a " very white var." 

 of Miselia oxyacanthcB brought £4, and one consisting of nine Helio- 

 tliis armigera and twenty H. peltigera £4 5s. Xylina furcifera {co7i- 

 forviis), put up in lots of three, made from 40s. to 60s. per lot, the 

 two best Catocala fraxini 60s., and two others not quite so good 35s. 

 The long series of Ghrysophanus dispar were distributed over three of 

 the sales, and those reserved for this one were not the worst of them. 

 Two streaked varieties ran up to £16 and £12 each respectively ; 



ENTOM. APRIL, 1920. I 



