( Ixxxiv ) 



were 3 males taken on tlie same day, 1 on July 17, 4 on 

 June 29, and 3 in May. Dr. Hanitsch hoped to secure a long 

 series in August, so that data would be available for estimating 

 the proportions of the two female forms. 



The Mymarid Caraphractus cinctus taken at Oxford 

 IN 1917. — Prof. PouLTON read the following communication 

 by Mr. A. H. Hamm of the Hope Department, and exhibited 

 examples of the specimens referred to : — 



" It is so long since any record of the capture of Cara- 

 phractus cinctus, Hal. {Polynema nutans, Lubbock), has been 

 made that a few notes on its occurrence near Oxford may not 

 be without interest. 



" On September 22 last, my friend and colleague Mr. H. 

 Britten and I were ' fishing ' for Anopheles larvae and pupae 

 in small clay-holes in a brick-field in the Kimmeridge Clay on 

 the west side of Shotover Hill, near Oxford. When sorting 

 over our captures in the evening we were surprised to find we 

 had both, quite accidentally, taken C. cinctus. We kept the 

 specimens alive for a few days in order to observe their mode 

 of progression in the water. A week later, on September 29, 

 we again visited the same ponds fully prepared to obtain 

 more, if possible, of this interesting insect; in this we were 

 entirely successful, and between us we took over twenty 

 individuals of both sexes, all, without exception, obtained 

 from a very small clay-hole of about two square yards in 

 area. On October 6 Mr. Britten went alone to the same 

 little pond and again succeeded in taking a fair number of 

 both sexes. The next visit was not until October 20, when 

 I went alone, and found them as before in some numbers. 

 We visited the same pond together, for tlie last time, on 

 October 27, but on this occasion, after spending ah hour or 

 more, we could only find two individuals, one alive and the 

 other dead. 



" On each occasion we took the insects home alive in the 

 jar containing our other aquatic captures, and then turned 

 the contents into a shallow saucer, in order to sort over the 

 material obtained. It was on one of these occasions that a 

 number of the Caraphractus were observed to come to the 

 surface of the water and fly very rapidly from side to side of 



