40 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF LEICESTER AND DISTRICT 
pollen, while the males appear to visit the plants only in search of the 
females. The flight of this bee is swift, and it hovers like a humming- 
bird before the flowers. Oswald Latter says that its nest is like a ball of 
white wool, and Gilbert White states that it visits the garden campion 
for the sake ofits tomentum. It was suspected to be frequenting Stachys 
lanata for the sake of the tomentum, but, though watched carefully many 
times, the bee was never detected in the act of gathering or carrying the 
down. Nor has a nest been found. The connection between Stachys 
lanata and Anthidium manicatum seems close. In early July 1931 a large 
patch of the plant was noticed in a garden near Oxford. On going up 
to the patch, Anthidium was seen flying in numbers before the flowers. 
Any entomologist in the neighbourhood of Leicester could attract Anthidium 
manicatum by planting a good patch of Stachys lanata. It is much to be 
desired that local students should take up the investigation of the many 
biological problems which the Hymenoptera Aculeata present. 
The information given in the foregoing brief notes on the Leicester- 
shire fauna is necessarily somewhat disconnected and very incomplete. 
Members of the British Association who désire further information, 
however, are cordially invited to consult the members of the staff of the 
Leicester Museum, who will be pleased to help as far as lies in their power. 
They would also put visiting members in touch with local workers. 
V. 
THE CLIMATE OF LEICESTERSHIRE 
BY 
E.G. BILHAMspiR:Se,,. DIC. 
General Conditions—Records kept—Rainfall—Temperature—Humidity— Wind 
Direction—Sunshine—Hail— Thunder—Frost. 
From the climatic point of view Leicestershire may be regarded as 
typifying the ‘inland’ conditions of Great Britain, uncomplicated by 
large masses of high-lying land. A line drawn westward from Lowestoft 
and a line drawn northward from the Isle of Wight intersect within the 
county, which thus lies, as nearly as may be, in the centre of England. 
We should expect the climate of Leicestershire, therefore, to exemplify 
almost the highest degree of ‘ continentality ’ possible in a land mass of 
the size and geographical situation of Great Britain. That is to say, we 
should expect a large diurnal and annual range of temperature, a high 
frequency of ground frosts and radiation fogs, and a well-marked. 
development of diurnal convective phenomena. 
