1893.] 263 



localities for this insect, bright sunshine, and one or two active collectors, it would 

 not be difficult in tlie course of a few hours to exterminate every individual specimen 

 of the insect that might be then present in the perfect state. — R. McLachlan]. 



Q-alls of Biorhiza aptera on Betula. — I have just received for determination 

 from Mr. T. W. Sanders, editor of " Amateur Gardening," living examples of this 

 insect, accompanied by portions of the gall from which they emerged, and leaves of 

 the tree, which had been sent to him from near Edenbridge. The galls were indi- 

 cated as found at the roots of a hircTi. I think this is quite a new plant for the 

 well-known "oak root-gall maker." In Mr. Cameron's new vol. (iv) of British 

 Phytophagous Hymenoptera (recently issued by the Ray Society) it is stated (p. 13) 

 that it has been found at roots of beech, and even of firs ; but anything else than 

 oak must be looked upon as exceptional. Cameron terms the " collective " insect 

 " BiorMza terminalis" the spring oak-apple form being Teras terminalis. For the 

 sake of clearness I have retained for the root form the name under which it is best 

 known. — R. MoLachlan, Lewisham, London : October ^th, 1893. 



Drepanopteryx phalcBnoicI es at Pitlochry. — On August 29th, 1892, I beat out a 

 single specimen of this species from a birch at Pitlochry. This may be worthy of 

 record, and especially on account of the northern locality. — Alpeed Beaumont, 

 153, Hither Green Lane, Lewisham : October 9th, 1893. 



Micromus aphidivorus in Co. Wexford. — At the end of August, 1893, at Cour- 

 town, and early in September at Enniscorthy, I captured several examples of this 

 somewhat rare Hemerobid. I am indebted to Mr. McLachlan for the identification. 

 —Id. 



[Mr. King, in his List of the Neuroptera of Ireland, records this species from 

 Co. Kerry. That is the only other record of the species, as Irish, known to me. — 

 R. McL.]. 



Pulvinarla vitis. — Last week, on the old wood of a grape-vine which is trained 

 up the outside of a house near here, I saw some scales of Pulvinaria vitis, of this 

 year's brood, but, although still surmounting the white ovisac, they were wrinkled, 

 distorted, and useless. Next year, diis faventihus, I hope to obtain, in the month 

 of May, some of their progeny in good condition. 



I have heard of the annual appearance of this Coccid on another old vine 

 growing out of doors in this neighbourhood, and I once received sevei'al scales taken 

 from a vine at Hertford, so that the species is considerably distributed. 



In the old " Transactions of the Entomological Society," vol. i, p. 297 (1812), 

 A. H. Haworth records the finding of this Coccid on a " forced vine in his garden," 

 and adds that, "happily for us, this destructive insect is extremely rare in England; 

 it does not appear to have been described before, except by Gilbert White alone, in 

 his ' Natural History of Selborne ' (1781);" from which work is quoted White's 

 account of his finding on a vine growing on the walls of his house quantities of the 

 Coccus vitis vinifera, of Linnaeus, " which did not appear to have been at all checked 

 by the preceding winter, which had been uncommonly severe." — J. W. Douglas, 

 153, Lewisham Road, S.E. : September 2.8th, 1893. 



