NOTES FROM THE CAIRD INSECT HOUSE. 291 



the other British species Eryx ater F. (and with which it was 

 confused in some of the old collections), appeal's to have received 

 little or no study as to its habits. It is therefore as well to draw 

 attention to the different conditions under which the larvae of the 

 two species were found. 



Eryx ater is common in the New Forest and other well- wooded 

 districts, but has not been taken at Sherwood. It was formerly 

 very rare in collections, as owing to its nocturnal habits it usually 

 escaped the notice of collectors ; but it was taken a t sugar by 

 lepidopterists. The larva, which appears to be indistinguishable 

 from that of E . fairrnairei, is common in hollow trees, where it is 

 usually found associated with a Lamellicorn beetle, Dorcus paral- 

 lelojnpedus L., in ash or beech, or with Sinodendron cyliudricum 

 in apple. The burrows of these two beetles appear to form ideal 

 conditions for the Eryx to establish itself. It never attacks the 

 Lamellicorn larva?, and is entirely a wood-feeder. It has been 

 found in more than twenty trees in the Enfield district, but 

 always in the hollows and never in the bark. 



At Sherwood Forest, with E. fairmairei, the conditions are 

 always completely reversed. A hollow oak-tree there contained 

 some larva? which appeared to be Eryx, but which afterwards 

 produced specimens of an allied species, Cistela ceramboides L. 



The bark of this tree was infested with groups of Eryx larva?, 

 the eggs having been deposited in crevices in various parts of 

 the trunk. 



The larva feeds upon the growing bark, and the work of des- 

 truction is more complete than that produced by the elm-bark 

 pest Scolytus destructor. There are many fine old trees at Sherwood 

 upon which the bark was held together merely by the strength 

 of its outer layers, the whole of the inner layer having been 

 devoured by the Eryx larva?. Only a little effort was needed to 

 bring the whole mass to the ground, when amidst a cloud of dust 

 and spiders one might hope to find a few of the beetles, but more 

 often the larva? of several generations together. 



A ulonium trisulcum. 



The following extract from Fowler and Donisthorpe's ' British 

 Coleoptera' is of interest in connection with the specimens 

 now exhibited : — " Enfield. Under elm-bark in the burrows of 

 Scolytus multistriatus. Subsequently, Mr. Pool took it both at 

 Edmonton and Winchmore Hill. This very interesting addition 

 to our list (Ent. Record, xvi. 1904, p. 310) was made by Mr. C. 

 J. C. Pool in July 1904. The insect is found rarely under elm- 

 bark in Central and Southern Europe in the burrows of S. 

 destructor and S. multistriatus. The larva of this species is briefly 

 described by Westwood. It is long, subdepressed, and slightly 

 curved, with three pairs of thoracic legs and a pair of short, 

 recurved, horny points upon the terminal segment of the body. 

 The pupa is very much elongated, with two short obtuse points 

 at the extremity." 



