216 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



is fully a hundred feet in depth. It appears to be the moraine 

 pwfonde of an ice-sheet formed in the extreme period of the 

 Glacial Epoch, and consists of grey clay intermixed with frag- 

 ments of chalk, and is full of boulders of Oolite, Lias, and some 

 other rocks, which are often polished and grooved by ice-action. 

 So rich is the surface that little or no land in the neighbour- 

 hood goes untended, woods are rare and very small, and pasture 

 at a minimum. Few more unpromising places could be imagined 

 by the entomologist ; and yet this garden, which was held by 

 commendation by a freeman of Ely's abbot in Saxon times, by 

 Eobert Malet in 1086, and has undoubtedly been under cultiva- 

 tion ever since, produces things of interest, as I trust the 

 following jottings will show. 



1. Dipteron ijreying upon Hymeiiopteron. — We all know the 

 manner in which Hymenoptera take toll of Diptera ; the nume- 

 rous species stored up as food for their larvae, as well as the 

 single specimens so often noticed outside the nests of Aculeates, 

 and the large numbers slain entomophagously by the parasitic 

 kinds. But I can recall no record of retribution on the part of 

 the latter, except in the case of the genus Dioctria. To-day 

 (June 1st, 1914), I saw a small Empid fly sitting upon a 

 bramble leaf, holding in its fore or its anterior legs a yet smaller 

 insect. These I tubed, expecting to find that the prey was (as 

 is most usual in such cases) one of the smaller species of the 

 Dipterous genus Sciara. What, then, was my surprise upon 

 discovering that it was a Chalcid of the difficult — and to me 

 unintelligible — genus Eidophus, Geoff. ! It was quite dead, 

 though I could not see what part of its anatomy the Empid, 

 which proved on examination to be Tachydromia mimita, Mg., 

 had been sucking. 



2. " I'hese Animals Bite." — My wrist was seized by Anthocoris 

 sylvestris, Linn., in no friendly manner, while I was reading 

 in the garden at 9.30 p.m. on July 7th. His proboscis 

 was firmly inserted through the skin and effected a small, sharp 

 pain like the prick of a No. 19 entomological pin. He sucked 

 my blood at his own sweet will for two minutes, possibly three, 

 thereinafter I saw his face no more. The result was dis- 

 appointing; none of the throb induced by Cimex was expe- 

 rienced; the small pricking lasted for fifteen minutes and then 

 ceased ; a slight blush at the point of insertion had faded in 

 five, and nothing further was seen or felt. I have very rarely 

 been the victim of Heteropterous onslaughts, and can recall no 

 specific occasion since Capsus lanarius, Linn., was captured 

 flying on July 21st, 1896, when it promptly turned upon me and 

 caused my thumb " sensations similar to those set up by Urtica 

 dioica," to quote my diary of that date. 



3. A Curious Aerial Dance. — Eecords of unspecified insects 

 are often useless, but the aerial dances of Hilara species form a 



