378 [September, 



an elevation of over 2800 feet, but the species apparently does not 

 occur either at Gibraltar or Tangier. 



Besides an occasional straggler of Merophysia carinulata, Mots., 

 the populous colonies of the big-headed, pale testaceous Pheidole 

 megacepliala, F., appear to give shelter to but one species of Coleoptera, 

 the extraordinary Paussus Favieri, Pairm. This beetle was found very 

 soon after rny arrival at Gibraltar, and in some localities (near Campa- 

 mento for instance) it may be called abundant, as 1 have taken as many 

 as twenty specimens from a single nest; it appears to be found equally 

 on sandy or clayey soils. There is much in its general aspect which 

 recalls that of Claviger on an enlarged scale, but it is an even more 

 sluggish creature, being found motionless where the ants are most 

 densely clustered, and apparently an object of entire indifference to 

 them ; though, as far as I can ascertain, it preys on the " brood " of 

 the ants like the Sternocceli. Indeed, I have never observed, with these 

 southern ants, anything at all resembling the solicitude shown towards 

 their Coleopterous inmates, as is exhibited by our species towards 

 Atemeles and Claviger, for instance. The Paussus is found at Tangier, 

 but is not so abundant there as at Gibraltar. 



This exhausts the list of Myrmecophilous beetles which I have 

 observed in the region of the Straits of Gibraltar; and the other ants 

 appear to have no guests but the common Merophysia, with the excep- 

 tion of the rare and singular Anoclietus Chilianii, Spin., whose small 

 colonies seem usually to be quite free from beetles. On one occasion, 

 however, at Tangier (December 9th, 1887), I found Pseudotrechus, 

 Oochrotus, Coluocera, Merophysia, and Medon seminiger, Fairm., all out 

 for a walk together in the warm sunshine, on the top of a stone, which 

 covered an unusually large nest of this ant. 



My best thanks are due to Mr. Geo. Lewis for the determination 



of the Histeridae, and to Dr. Sharp for that of the remaining Coleoptera, 



also to Mr. Edward Saunders for the names of the ants mentioned in 



this article. 



23, Kanelagh Eoad, Sheernees : 

 July 27th, 1889. 



NOTES ON SOME NEW AND EAEE BEITISH LIPTERA. 

 BY COETNDON MATTHEWS, F.E.S. 



The species of flies enumerated in the following notes have all 

 been taken by me in the woods close to this house, which is situated 

 on the southern slope of Dartmoor, at an elevation of about five 

 hundred feet above the sea, from which it is distant at the nearest 

 point about seven miles ; the wood extends over an area of possibly 

 two hundred acres, and a large portion of it, which, from the nature 

 of the ground, can never have been cultivated, is covered by scrub 



