NOTES ON COLLECTING. 



335 



specimen of Taphria 7iimliii, Pz,, was picked iip running on the road 

 just at dusk one evening. Mr. Edwards records only one specimen as 

 having been taken (in a similar way) in the county up to 1893, at 

 Lakenham. Stilicus subtilis, of which two specimens were taken at 

 different times, is not given in Edwards' list for the county of 

 Norfolk, so I presume this is a fresh record ; for several others there 

 are only a few county records ; L. nigrofasciatus is given for Mouse- 

 hold Heath only, and as not common ; my locality is north of this, 

 and it was by no means uncommon, I secured my series in a very few 

 minutes.— T. Hudson Beabe, B.Sc, F.E.S.E., F.E.S., King's Koad, 

 Kichmond, Surrey. November Srd, 1900. 



Bembidium stomoides, Dj., in Yorkshire. — I found a specimen of 

 this scarce Bembid, on the banks of the Wharfe in the woods of 

 Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, on September 12th. — Ibid. 



Probable mtrmecophilous habits of the genus Astilbus. — In the 

 Deutsche. Entom. Zeitschr., 1894, p. 274, Father Wasmann writes "On 

 May 3rd, 1893, I found at Linz an Astilbus running on a path in a 

 field with a dead 2Iyrmica laevinodis in its mouth." This record will 

 call to mind a similar capture made by myself at Chiddingfold, and 

 recorded ante.,Tp. 238. — H. St. J. K. Donisthorpe, F.Z.S., 58, Kensington 

 Mansions, South Kensington. Xoveniber '2,2nd, 1900. 



Aberration of Telephorus rusticus. — I have in my possession a 

 ^ specimen of Telephorus rusticus without the black spot on the thorax, 

 which I took in cop., with an ordinary ? in the New Forest in June, 

 1891.— A. J. Chitty, M.A., F.E.S. November 22nd, 1900. 



^g^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Lepidoptera at Wicken. — On August 20th, I joined my cousin, 

 Mr. F. H. Pilleau, at Soham Station en route for Wicken, for a couple 

 of days' fen collecting. My cousin, who has recently revived an 

 interest in butterflies, which has lain dormant for some years, and 

 who had never seen Papilio machaon alive, was most anxious to meet 

 with this species in its native haunts, more especially as he had a few 

 days previously been informed by a lady at Felixstowe that she had 

 recently seen six specimens of Papnlio machaon which had been taken 

 by a gentleman staying in her house, at a place called Bawstead Ferry, 

 near Felixstowe, where my cousin was spending his summer holiday. 

 On arriving at A¥icken enquiries elicited the information that P. 

 machaon was still about, but that it was nearly over and not in good 

 condition, which I had myself expected. We, however, determined to 

 do our best. It w^as too late that day to think of butterflies so after a 

 stroll through the fen and the casual capture of one Plusia chnjsitis, 

 a consultation with my old friend Bailey, and a good dinner, we 

 determined to try what sugar would produce, and, led by Bailey, started 

 out to sugar the trees and posts in the drove. The first thing we 

 noticed on getting to the fen, was that a thick white fog was rising all 

 round — a bad omen — which was realised, inasmuch as, comparatively 

 speaking, there was not very much about. A fair Catocala nupta was 

 the first thing bottled off the sugar, and then a specimen of Tapinostola 

 hellmanni was secured. Afjrotis nigricans, Amathes xanthographa, A. 

 c-nigrum, A. rubi, and A. umbrosa were in large numbers, and I 

 secured a very pretty series of A. c-nigrum to replace my former 



