1889.1 435 



Bombus Scrimshiranus. — I took a male on September 25th in the garden of a 

 friend's house at Wimbledon. B. pomorum. — On September 9th I secured a female 

 of this extremely rare species at Beachy Head, just under the lighthouse. (Mr. 

 Saunders says, in his Synopsis, 1884, " The $ and $ only have occurred in this 

 country, and we have only one locality recorded, viz., near Deal, where Mr. F. Smith 

 captured three males in 1863, and his son a female in 1864.") 



On the 14th and 15th of August I was visiting Mr. Saunders at Woking, and 

 went out on each day collecting in the immediate neighbourhood. On the 14th I 

 brought back a specimen of Hoplisus bicinctus, and on the 15th, one of Priocnemis 

 affinis ; both rare insects, and not previously found at Woking, though the district has 

 been exceptionally well searched for Aculeates. — F. D. Moeice, Rugby : Oct., 1889. 



Parnus nitidulus, Reer, in Devonshire. — On p. 325 of the present volume, I 

 mentioned the occurrence of a Parnus on the sand-hills at Braunton Burrows. I 

 then thought the two specimens taken were somewhat aberrant examples of P. auri- 

 culatus ; but recently, having been able to examine them more thoroughly, I find 

 them to be P. nitidulus, Heer, a species hitherto unique in Great Britain. Dr. Sharp, 

 who took the first specimen on the golf-links at Aberlady, has kindly examined 

 them, and confirms my diagnosis. 



My specimens have lost the golden pubescence, and this gives them an additional 

 resemblance to P. auriculatus, from which they can, however, be distinguished 

 by the smaller and slenderer shape, and the absence of striae at the base of the 

 elytra. 



It is a singular coincidence that Dr. Sharp's specimens and mine have both been 

 taken on sand-hills. I only took a pair, which were on the flatter and less barren 

 part of the Burrows farthest from the coast.— W. F. H. Blandfoed, 48, Wimpole 

 Street, W. : October \Uh, 1889. 



Aberrant specimen of Notoxus monoceros, L. — I have just received from Mr. 

 George Henry, of Hastings, a specimen of Notoxus monoceros, L., with the thoracic 

 horn deeply and strongly bifurcated. I have never noticed this peculiarity before 

 in this species, but it is quite possible that similar examples may be found in our 

 collections. Mr. Henry's insect was taken on the Camber sand-hills off Rye, in 

 1880.— W. W. Fowler, Lincoln : October 11th, 1889. 



Acocephalus nervosus, Schrank. — In the garden is a patch of tansy {Tanacetum 

 vulgare) of some years' growth, cultivated for the sake of its ornamental foliage ; it 

 is now about six feet in diameter, and contains some 300 stems. On the 10th inst. I 

 saw, on the top of one of the stems among the leaves, several individuals of Acocephalus 

 nervosus, and was surprised to find, on further search, that each stem had on it, in a 

 similar manner, on an average five Acocephali, <? , $ , a few of them still in the pupa 

 state. Thus there were at least 1500 of them in this one spot, a number that I never 

 saw of any species of Homoptera within the same limits. There they sat quite still 

 under their verdant canopies as in paradisiacal enjoyment of a state of rapture. 

 Some being in the pupa stage showed that all had been reared on the plants. At this 

 season the flowers of the tansy are usually abundant, but now there are scarcely any, 

 and I attribute the paucity to the absorption of the sap of the plants by the enor- 

 mous number of abstracters. They have concentrated their attention to the tansy, 



PP 2 



