142 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



may still be differentiated by the characters given by Dr. Hagen 

 (Ent. Ann. 1858, p. 30), though his R. londinensis, Steph. is 

 now considered a mere variety of R. xanthostigma, whose sub- 

 radial nervures are often irregular ; in fact, I possess a specimen 

 exhibiting the characters of both forms in its alternate wings. 



R. xanthostigma, Schum. — I have captured but four examples 

 of this species, which I consider distinctly rare. Two females 

 are from a dry and sandy part of Brandon in Suffolk, and were 

 taken on 10th and 11th June, 1899; the one beaten from the 

 branch of a dead and large oak-tree, and the other found 

 beneath dead and rotten oak-bark, along with such subcortical 

 beetles as Hypophloeus hicolor and Thanasimus formicarius. The 

 other pair, on the contrary, occurred in an extremely wet part of 

 Tuddenham Fen, some twelve miles distant, on 6th June, 1903, 

 when a male was beaten from a large live sallow-tree, and 19th 

 June, 1901, when I detected a female settled on the leaf of a 

 well-grown water-dock ; I remember that it took to flight as I 

 approached it through the ooze. 



R. cognata, Kbr. — This is evidently extremely rare. The 

 only example of which I have heard was captured in Foxley 

 Wood, Norfolk, in June, 1886, by my friend Mr. H. J. Thouless, 

 and is in the collection of McLachlan, who had not seen a 

 specimen less than sixty years old (c/. E.M.M. 1900, p. 263). 



R. maculicollis, Steph. — Apparently confined to the New 

 Forest, where it is by no means uncommon. I beat a female 

 from hawthorn blossom at Brockenhurst, 26th May, 1895 

 (E.M.M. 1895, p. 193), and on the previous day took another 

 with aberrant neuration at Holmsley Marsh. In the middle of 

 June, 1907, I found both sexes sparingly at Wilverley Inclosure, 

 Matley Bog, and Denny Wood, though in nothing like the pro- 

 fusion stated at E.M.M. 1894, p. 189. 



R. notata, Fab. — Our last indigenous species is the only one 

 with any claims to frequency or general distribution ; it pro- 

 bably occurs in all the ancient-timbered districts southerly from 

 the Midlands. In the New Forest it has occurred to me on live 

 oak-trees, sitting on bracken, and lying dead upon water at 

 Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Wilverley, in May, 1895 and June, 

 1907. In Suffolk I have beaten the female from birch in 

 Assington Thicks, on 21st May, 1899, and from bushes in the 

 Bentley Woods on 15th June, 1895. But though I constantly 

 worked the latter locality from 1893 to 1904, I saw no more 

 imagines. On 20th July, 1900, the head, &c., of a larva were 

 detected beneath the bark of comparatively new pine railings 

 there. 



Concerning the life-history of this species, Mr. G. T. Lyle 

 has recently (Entom. 1908, p. 233) described the eggs from the 

 New Forest; they are probably laid in the crevices of bark. 

 Respecting the larva, I quote from my diary of 5th November, 



