SPREAD OF A RARE ROVE BEETLE IN SCOTLAND 103 
which the bark is fairly loose and which has a good amount 
of sap about the bole. Asa rule it is not found under bark 
which is dry and brittle, nor under very rotten bark, such 
as provides a suitable habitat for such sub-cortical beetles 
as Baptolinus alternans or Quedionuchus levigatus. Provided 
suitable bark conditions exist, the beetle occurs indiscrimin- 
ately on standing or fallen trees. It is not attached 
exclusively to the trunk as I have found it on the higher 
branches of recently fallen trees. I have taken it on 
Beech, Oak, and Fir trees, and Mr Black mentions that in 
Peeblesshire he also finds it under Beech bark. The insect 
when disturbed gives off an extremely pungent scent, which 
has been likened by one observer to the odour of the 
common bed bug. So strong is this scent in the case of 
crenata that in the act of removing the bark one can detect 
by it the presence of the beetle before it is actually seen. 
So far no accurate information has been obtained regarding 
the life history of the beetle, nor does it appear to be known 
upon what it feeds either in the Jarval or mature state. 
From the conditions under which it is found, however, I 
think that it is highly probable that the larva, at anyrate, 
feeds upon the larvae or pupe of wood and _ bark-boring 
Rhynchophora or Weevils, as the larvae of some species of 
the genus Homaliuim (to which Phyllodrepotdea is allied) are 
known to do, and that therefore it should fall to be classed 
among our beneficial forest insects. 
Osier Beetle (Leptidea brevipennis) introduced to- 
Scotland.—One day in April an attendant in the Zoological 
Laboratory, Glasgow University, showed me a little “Fly” which 
was turning up in various parts of the Laboratory. As soon as I 
saw the insect, I asked if there were any wicker baskets about and 
was shown one in which some frogs had been sent up from 
Cambridge. By simply ‘“dunting” the basket upon the table,- I 
could have taken hundreds of Leptidea brevipennits, an Osier feeder 
native to Southern Europe and Algeria, and thence introduced to 
Britain; I found them very lively and they continued to emerge 
for several weeks; the wonder is how the basket held together 
considering the number of beetels which had emerged.—James J. 
F.-X. Kine, Glasgow. 
