276 



Notes and Comments. 



Hanson give ' Observations on the Transit of Venus/ and Mr. 

 W. H. Foxall, the Hon. Secretary, has three papers, viz. :— ' The 

 Drainage of Shenston Vale ' ; ' The Geology of the Eastern 

 Boundary Fault of the South Staffs. Coalfield,' and ' History 

 of Endowment of Research Fund.' The publication is well 

 illustrated. 



A RARE HYMENOPTERON. 



In The Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist for June (which 

 is a particularly good number) Mr. J. Ray Hardy describes 

 a rare insect, captured near Hollingworth, Cheshire, in July, 

 1916. It was found among some black ants. He says, ' It 

 is evidently a rarely met with Hymenopteron belonging to the 

 Dryinidre, in which family it is placed under the name 



Dicondylus pedestris Curtis. 



Dicondylus pedestris Curtis, by 'A. H. Haliday, in the " Entom. 

 Mag.," November, 1832, page 273, and he also gives its 

 synonyms Dryinus pedestris Dalm., and Dryinns formicarius 

 Dalm., as given in Dalman's " Analecta Entomologica " — a 

 work I have not seen ; but otherwise makes no comment 

 about it. I note also that Gray places this species in his 

 " List of Hymenoptera " (Brit. Mus., 1853), as Gonatopis 

 pedestris Haliday ( — Gon. formicarius Dalman). After long 

 and careful search through all the literature relating to Hymen- 

 optera at my command, I at length found the insect figured in 

 a paper on " Notes on the Oxyura," by Francis Walker, in 

 The Entomologist for January, 1874, page 27. Unfortunately, 

 there is not the least reference to it in the text of this paper. 



Naturalist, 



