( cxxi ) 



(3) An instance of the relentless war of species against 

 species noticed so particularly in the Tropics. On February 2nd, 

 1912, he noticed a large Diplopteron hovering over a large 

 ant, as if about to attack it, and the ant seemed prepared to 

 give battle. The wasp discovered his presence and flew off 

 before he could catch it, and thereupon the ant put its head 

 inside the rolled-up leaf on which it had been crawling when 

 threatened by the wasp and dragged out the pupa of a small 

 moth. The ant was secured and the pupa was kept in the 

 hope that the moth would appear, as only one wing-case had 

 been punctured, but on February 7th a Tachinid fly emerged 

 from the pupa. The pupa-case of the moth was so transparent 

 that the puparium of the Tachinid could be seen within it. 

 Another possible interpretation of the action of the wasp was 

 that it had discovered the pupa at the same time with the 

 ant. These predaceous wasps had a wonderful instinct for 

 discovering the whereabouts of their prey. In the course of 

 last year a wasp was seen to alight on a rolled-up leaf 

 containing a larva of the Hesperid Rhoj^alocampta forestall, 

 Cram. It bit into the leaf at once, without any preliminary 

 investigation as far as could be seen, and proceeded to drag 

 its victim out through the hole, shifting its grip from time to 

 time so as to obtain a more convenient hold. 



A Scarce Hemipteron. — Mr. E. C. Bedwell exhibited 

 specimens of Lasiosomus enervis, H.S., one of the rarest of 

 the British Lygaeidae. The species had been recorded from 

 very few localities, and had only occurred singly hitherto. 

 On September 25th last he discovered sixteen specimens at 

 the roots of coarse grass in a very restricted space on the 

 Culver Cliff near Sandown, Isle of Wight, and if he had not 

 mistaken the species for an extra fine race of Sty gnus 

 pedestris he could easily have obtained more. Mr. E. A. 

 Butler informed him that it must be a rare species on the 

 Continent also, as he had never been able to obtain speci- 

 mens. This species is an addition to the Isle of Wight fauna. 

 Saunders {Hemiptera Heteroptera, p. 92) records the species 

 from Dariand Hill, near Chatham (Champion), and Weybridge 

 (Billups). 



Mantid Oothecae, — Mr, 0, E, Janson exhibited specimens 



