70 . THE entomologist's eecord. 



fence, and one on a willow-trnnk near ; they vary extremely in size, 

 the smallest being approximately 9 mm. in length and 3 mm. in 

 breadth, the largest 18 mm. long and 7 mm. broad ; the other four 

 are intermediate between these two, but do not touch either extreme. 

 From the middle of May onward, Hypcraalternans and jtolliuc occurred 

 freely in a ditch on Helosciadtoii, and I took many pairs representing 

 each form in ropida, i.e., S s. oi polliix with $ alternaw^, and vice verm. 

 In spite of this intercopulation the great majority of the specimens 

 were easily referable to their respective forms, a few, however, having 

 the elytra whitened and the markings half obliterated (cf. Ent. 

 lire, X., p. 22.) In and about the same ditch I got a number of 

 Donaciac, chiefly Rnirra, but in one very restricted part of it 

 3 5" s and 2 i s of I), ajfinis were swept, and amongst some ordi- 

 nary D. linearis, a single example of a dark purplish aberration 

 was found. In an adjacent backwater D. crafiHiprn occurred early in 

 July, on the identical two patches of water-lilies which produced it last 

 year, but it was again not to be found on other patches of the plant in 

 the same stream. In the Lea itself a little later IJ. sparfianii turned up, 

 a welcome surprise ; it chiefly affected the floating blades of long grass 

 growing in the water, and was very shy. Beating nettles in one of 

 the numerous marsh ditches at Edmonton on July 9th produced eight 

 Corymhitcs mctallicn^i, and a single individual occurred in another ditch 

 a short distance off, where a few of the active little ('n/pt()Jnfp)ii(s 

 A-piistidatus were boxed, together with two of the var. ocltropterm of 

 ( '(in/nibitcs qucrcvs, the type being abundant. Tani/iiicciifi palliating in 

 plenty, and lllrinoncus (/yaminciis (4) were amongst my other captures 

 in July. The heat of August made things very scarce, but I made at 

 least one good capture during that month, this being a single example 

 of the rare Kpuraea dijfriRa, owi of fungus on willow; curiously enough 

 it is the only example of the genus I have yet met with. I am in- 

 debted to Mr. Donisthorpe for kindly confirming its determination. 

 (Jionifs tiiberculnsus (verbascij, common enough in two widely- separated 

 localities last season, was very much scarcer this year in both. 



Epping Forest, some outlying portions of which skirt the Lea 

 Valley on its eastern border, has sadly deteriorated since the days of 

 Stephens as a resort for the coleopterist, but even now good insects 

 will reward constant work. Frequent visits during the season provided 

 me with a few decent species, some of which have been previously 

 recorded from the Forest, but which, I think, notwithstanding, are 

 wortli mentioning. The majority of these were subcortical species, 

 and those found in fungi ; sweeping produced nothing of interest, and 

 only two species at all worthy of record were obtained by beating, these 

 being Jjalaniniiii rillosiis, one out of oak, May 23rd, and A;iriltiH lati- 

 cornis, a few specimens out of oak in July. Early in April I was fortu- 

 nate enough to discover in an old decaying beech at Fairmead Bottom, 

 successive visits to which produced about 30 specimens each of Ciconca 

 rarii'f/atns and Mycetojdiaijiai atomaritis, with single specimens of Litarynn 

 Idfa.^ciatiis and CenjUnt liistcmidcs. Ajdtodius amspurcatus was another 

 capture in April ; I found it rarely both at Chingford and High Beach.''' 



* Happening to be passing the field at Chingford again on November 20th, I 

 profiled by the liint contained in Dr. J. H. Bailey's paper in Ent. Mo. Maci., 

 vol. n.s., p. 7, as to the species occurring in tlie autumn, and scoured a long series. 

 I found it still " out " on my last visit on December 18th. 



