130 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S RECORD. 
ward, attached to the undersurface of the water-film by a long tube for 
breathing. At a recent meeting of the South London Entomological 
Society the different habits of the larve of these two sections of the 
Mosquito family were demonstrated by numerous examples shown by 
Mr. K. G. Blair, of the British Museum. 
It is hoped that in answer to the appeal specimens of gnats from 
all over the country will be sent in from one and all. If any be sent 
to me I shall be pleased to forward them to the right quarter and 
to acknowledge their receipt and the result in the magazine when the 
identification has been made.—H.J.T. 
IDOTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 
HarLY sUMMER ON THE SuRREY HILLs.—Advantage was taken of a 
few days of leisure afforded by Whitsuntide and the extremely fine 
weather of mid-May to put in some hours on the Surrey hills in the 
neighbourhood of Redhill and Reigate. A preliminary ramble on 
business other than entomology showed that Rumicia phlaeas was out in 
numbers on the Common near Redhill, between the scattered masses of 
golden broom and gorse, flying over the abundant flower stems of 
Rumex acetosella here and there displaced by brilliant patches of the 
small dog violet, Viola canina, the whole scené looking beautifuily fresh 
after the storm of the previous afternoon. A tap on one of the gorse 
bushes brought out a Taeniocampa stabilis, but nothing else could be 
stirred. A fence was the resting place of 7. gothica, again a solitary 
capture. Along a road near where some ten years of my boyhood days 
were spent was a recent cutting in the sand, and I was pleased to see 
that the sand-martins had already discovered this ‘ coign of vantage ” 
for them and made dozens of excavations for the prosecution of their 
annual domestic matters. The sand bees were in numbers on the hill 
where the grass was studded with the small mounds of earth thrown 
out from their burrows. A solitary Cilia glaucata (spinula) came in the 
house to the light and subsequently specimens of Hupithecia vulgata and 
Hemerophila abruptaria were brought to me. 
As yet hedges seemed very unproductive for beating produced only 
Dasycera sulphurella. Although Aglais urticae were flying about, and 
had been for weeks, there seemed as yet no traces of the larve on the 
abundant and well placed groups of nettles, which however already 
were contorted by the larve of both Spilodes verticalis and Hypena 
proboscidalis. On a moist common at the foot of the chalk 
range the “‘ whites’ were common and Cenonympha pamphilus was 
noted. Conspicuous here were the large dense patches of blue flowers 
of Veronica chamaedrys. A neighbouring fence in a lane near by, usually 
fairly productive, only gave a belated Taeniocampa yracilis. In faet I 
have found fences and tree trunks of late years particularly unproductive 
compared with what they were some twenty years ago. On a moist 
moss-covered wall a beautiful delicate little alien plant, drenaria 
balearica, was flowering freely. How this “stray’’ has got located here 
is a mystery. Its native habitat, as its name implies, is the far off 
Mediterranean, and no other spot in Britain has so far as I know been 
favoured by its presence. 
Turning down an old footpath, one of the many branches of the 
Pilgrims’ Ways, leading out of this lane to some old chalk quarries, to 
