LIFE-HISTORIES. 21 



turns up in great numbers throughout the district, and appears to 

 differ greatly from the other species of the genus, by the rarity of any 

 variation from the usual form. I have examined some thousands of 

 living examples, but have found only four specimens which differ from 

 the common form. One of these is a remarkable form, with two spots 

 on one elytron and only one spot on the other. Another specimen has 

 irregular- shaped spots, which meet and form a bar on one elytron. 

 The other specimens are very similar, but the spots do not quite 

 meet. Strange to say, the preponderance of red marking appears 

 on the left-hand side of each of the specimens here mentioned. 

 I have taken one specimen of M. piceus without any black mark- 

 ing on the elytra. Melasis buprestoides turned up in abundance 

 in dead birches at Enfield and Winchmore Hill. Elater lythropterus 

 and E. balteatus, under oak bark, near Waltham Abbey. Athous 

 rhombem, one specimen in a sycamore stump at Enfield. The 

 black larvae of this species is very common here, but up to the present 

 time I have failed to discover more than the one beetle. Ptinus 

 lichenum is abundant in .July on old fences, at Enfield. Ptinus 

 sexpunctatus, one specimen crawling on a doorstep, at Enfield. 

 Rhizopertha pusilla, abundant in -July on fences, etc., near an old 

 mill at Ponder's End. Numerous species of Cis occur in fungi, about 

 the best being C. fiiscatus. Xestobium tessulatiim, in abundance at 

 Waltham and other parts, in old willows, etc. Prionus coriarius, 

 CalUdiam variabile, C. violaceum, Tetrops praemta, Lciopus nebulosiis, 

 and a fine series of Clytus mysticus, are amongst the longicorns I have 

 taken at Enfield. Of the species of Donacia, no less than twelve have 

 fallen to my net, others may occur when I know more about the 

 district. My list includes D. crassipes, D. dentata, D. bidens, D. 

 span/anii, D. linearis, D. typhae, D. menyanthidis, D. semicuprea, D. 

 cinerea, D. sericea, D. affinis, and D. thalassina, all of these occur in 

 abundance. D. cinerea appears to be confined to a pond near Waltham 

 Abbey ; D. thalassina, on rushes at the edge of a disused portion of 

 the new river, at Enfield. The others may be taken in various parts 

 of the river Lea, between Edmonton and Cheshunt. Crejndodera 

 helxins and the ab. cyanea on aspens at Enfield and Northaw. 

 Orchesia micans swarmed in fungi on various trees. Hallomenus 

 humeralis, rarely in fungi and under bark. Conopalpns testaceus, a 

 pair bred from an oak-stick picked up at Palmer's Green. Anisoxya 

 fuscula, several specimens in a dead sloe-stick, near Waltham, and one 

 beaten from a sloe hedge at Edmonton. Brachytarsus fasciatus, one 

 example settled on a reed at Edmonton. Maydalis barbicornis, one 

 beaten from hawthorn at Cheshunt. I have succeeded in breeding 

 four specimens of Auloniiun sulcatum from larvfe taken in the burrows 

 of Scolytus multistriatus, at Edmonton. One dead specimen of 

 Aulonium was taken from a spider's web on an old elm ab Winchmore 

 Hill. This tree is now in the clutches of tbe Scolytus grubs, so I am 

 looking forward to another batch of Aulonium next season. — Charles 

 J. C. Pool, Enfield. November 2,dth, 1905. 



:iglOTES ON LIFE-HISTORIES, LARY^, &c. 



Larval variation of Acronycta alni. — In the Eyit. Record, vol. ii., 

 p. 128, and in Ent. Mo. Mag., xxiii., 226, I called attention to the 

 circumstance that, occasionally, the larva of A. alni, which has four 



