GARDEN NOTES. 217 



wide subject and the (doubtless specific) evolutions appear to 

 have received little attention. It may be of interest, therefore, 

 to note that on the morning of June 26th, at 8.30 a.m., 

 members of this genus were forming a somewhat dense hori- 

 zontal column near the west bank of the moat, and four feet to 

 the east, on the edge of the sunshine, was a similar column ; 

 each column was about two and a half feet high, and between 

 them individual specimens perpetually darted backwards and 

 forwards at great speed, apparently mingling for a few moments 

 with each column in turn, and straying away nowhere else. 

 How long the dance lasted I failed to note, but similar evolutions 

 were in progress at the same spot upon the two following days, 

 when the movement seemed to vary in no way. 



4. Liophlceus nubilus, Fab. — This appears to be a distinctly 

 uncommon species of weevil in my twenty years' experience in 

 Britain, occurring only in May (when I took it at Dover during 

 1896) and the first few days of June. In Suffolk it is both rare 

 and local ; and, although Garneys found three at Beddingfield 

 about 1870, Tomlin noticed it at Glemsford in June of 1905, and 

 Dr. Sharp tells me it occurs freely at Mildenhall, I have never 

 taken it outside my garden. Here it may be annually seen 

 sparingly, and on May 15th last we were much diverted by watching 

 a perfect beetle consuming a leaf of ivy with its nasal mandibles. 

 It held the outer edge of the leaf, like a lepidopterous larva does, 

 and, like it, excised the leaf in a semicircular manner, beginning 

 at the furthest point its rostrum could reach and gradually 

 biting the edge towards its sternum, thence repeating the 

 process from the furthest point. Here it is most usually found 

 among the garden weed locally known as " ground elder," 

 though never far from ivy. 



5. A Non-carnivorous Empid Fly. — I have never noticed 

 members of the Empidae prey upon aught but perfect insects 

 till May 5th, when a female Tachiidromia pallidiventris, Mg., 

 was seen on the disc of a large bramble-leaf, assiduously sucking 

 the surface with its proboscis. The leaf was examined with a 

 lens and found to be sparingly covered with minute excreta, 

 which was not honey-dew, for no Aphids were present, but which 

 had probably been emitted by either Apion vorax, Herbst., 

 Batophila ruhi, Payk., or an Anthocoris larva, all of which were 

 sitting immediately above the leaf in question. I was careful to 

 note that the Empid carried no prey ; it is a common species 

 throughout Suffolk, where I have studied its curious mode of 

 copulation on the coast, Norfolk, Lincoln, and Wiltshire ; Mr. 

 Bedwell once bred it from a small (? Braconid) cocoon. 



6. Probable Host of Lissonota femorata, Hlmgr. — Nothing 

 has hitherto been ascertained respecting the economy of this 

 Pimplid Ichneumon, and it may consequently be worthy of note 

 that upon June 29th I saw a female walking over and investi- 



