90 [-'^Pril. 



in a sandy ditch, Cowley. Trechus discus — one specimen, under roots of plants at 

 Wheatley ; T. micros — sparingly, in several localities. Patrohus excavatus — one 

 specimen, by the side of a brook in Bagley Wood. — John W. Shipp, University 

 Museum, Oxford : January 29th, 1893. 



Bembidium nigricorne, Oyll., Sfc, at Woking. — During the last few days I have 

 taken Bembidium nigricorne, Gryll., and Amara infima, Duftschm., not uncommonly 

 in this neighbourhood. They occur in sand pits and in bare sandy places at the roots 

 of heath. Both have previously been recorded by me from Chobham,* not many 

 miles away. A very fresh example of Cleonus nebulosus, Linn., was found in a sand 

 pit here on Sept. 24,th last.— GrEO. 0. CHAMPioisr, Horsell, Woking : March Qth, 1893- 



British Aculeate Hymenoptera. — Messrs. L. Reeve and Co. have in preparation 

 a new work on the British Aculeate Hymenoptera fi'om the pen of Mr. Edward 

 Saunders, F.L.S., uniform with the same author's work on the Semiptera-Reteroptera 

 just completed. 



Bombus pomorumand lapidarius. — In November, 1889, I recorded in this 

 Magazine a capture by myself at Beachy Head of Bombus pomorum $ . Last year 

 at Hastings I found an insect, which at first I believed to be another example of that 

 species. It was less brightly coloured than the Beachy Head specimen, but in both 

 the thorax was edged with a ring of pale hairs, and the black and red on the abdo- 

 men were not clearly defined, but shaded gradually into each other. 



The Beachy Head specimen had been named pomorum by Mr. Edward Saunders, 

 and as I happened to be visiting him when I left Hastings, I naturally showed him 

 with some exultation what I supposed to be a second example of that extremely rare 

 species. However, on closely comparing it with his continental specimens of pomo- 

 rum, it became clear to both of us that though the pubescence of my insect was 

 "right " for pomorum, its structure was " wrong." The head and the intermediate 

 metatarsi proved that it could only be a lapidarius ; and I have described it accord- 

 ingly as a curious variety of that species in the January number of this year's 

 Ent. Mo. Mag. 



On returning to Rugby I looked, with some apprehension, once more at my 

 Beachy Head Bombus, and found, to my dismay, that it had the blunt-apexed 

 metatarsus of lapidarius. The general aspect of the creature, however, was so ex- 

 ceedingly unlike a normal lapidarius (ornamented, as it was, with bright brown hairs 

 fringing the thorax, and with an abdomen which, in some lights, appeared to be 

 entirely brownish-red), that, though I could no longer flatter myself I had taken a 

 British pomorum, I began to wonder whether I could have lighted on a wholly new 

 species. That vague hope too, however, I have had to sui-render. I have again 

 shown the two specimens to Mr. Saunders, and, seeing them together, he pronounces 

 them identical, and both lapidarius ; and Professor Perez, who has also kindly 

 examined them, takes unhesitatingly the same view, but adds that their coloration 

 differs from that of any variety of lapidarius that he has seen. As to their strange 

 tendency to red, he says, " Je ne I'avais jamais constatee, et il m'a fallu regarder de 

 tres pres les lapidarius de ma collection pour retrouver sur un petit nombre une 

 faible decoloration roussatre de quelques polls de I'ecusson et du dos de i'abdomen." 

 — P. D. MoEiCE, Rugby : February, 1893. 



* Ent. Mo. Mag., xv, p. 203 (1878). 



