1894.2 39 



nourishment, I fear. My cousin, E. C. Casey, was the first to be bo favoured as to 

 find the species on August 8th last, feeding on the tips of Genista cinerea, with 

 which the hill sides were covered ; he also found the insect on a scabious (Scabiosa). 

 These are, I believe, new food-plants, as grass and Ulex only are given as the usual 

 ones. — F. Beomilow, Nice, France : January 2nd, 1894. 



Cave-frequenting habit of Bittacus chilensis. — In a letter just received from 

 Mr. E. C. Reed, of Baiios de Cauquenes, Chile, there is a note concerning the habits 

 of -B. chilensis, the finest species of the genus, which, is certainly worth placing on 

 record. He says : — " Twice I have found our Bittacus in caves. Last year I found 

 swarms in an old mine ; this week (towards end of November) ditto in a deep hole. 

 Otherwise specimens are rare." My personal experience is limited to B. tipularius, 

 and (on one occasion only) B. Sagenii, the two European species. They frequent 

 herbage, much after the style of their allies the Panorpce, and their flight is similar 

 to that of the Tipulcs they mimic. So far as I am aware no previous observation 

 as to cavernicolous habits has been recorded for any species. — R. McLachlan, 

 Lewisham : January 9th, 1894. 



Syrphus guttatus. Fall., new to Britain. — On looking through specimens of the 

 genus Syrphus taken last summer, and put aside for subsequent examination, I have 

 just found one ? of this rare species ; the insect is not included in Mr. G-. H. 

 Yerrall's List of British Biptera, and apparently has not been hitherto recorded as 

 British. The striking and well defined white lines along the sides of the thorax 

 and the two white spots in front of the scutellum, render this species very distinct 

 from any other Syrphus ; my specimen corresponds exactly with Schiner's descrip- 

 tion, except that the black line said to extend from the crown to the middle of the 

 forehead is reduced to a single black dot. Two very distinct features which I do 

 not see noticed either in Schiner's or Zetterstedt's descriptions are a line of intensely 

 silvery white hairs along the hinder margins of the eyes, and two tufts of white 

 hairs on each side of the thorax. The insect was taken on June 11th, 1893, in 

 Stowford Cleave, Ivybridge, South Devon, near the ground where Eristalis cryptarum, 

 Fbr., occurs. — Coeyndon Matthews, Erme Wood, Ivybridge : January, 1894. 



Great abundance of Aleurodes brassicce, Walk. — In an interesting note in the 

 " Entomologist," xxvi, p. 357, Mr. 0. W. Dale records the extraordinary abundance 

 last year of this little snow-white insect at Grlanvilles Wootton, in the North-West 

 part of Dorset. Here, too, in the South-East corner of the same County, it has 

 been a regular pest for months past, and in our garden appeared in swarms on the 

 cabbages, broccoli and Brussels sprouts : the under-sides of many of the leaves are 

 still more or less white with large numbers of dead, and smaller numbers of living, 

 specimens, and even during the intensely cold weather experienced during the first 

 week of the present year, it requii-od but a touch or a pufE of breath to rouse the 

 latter into activity. Mr. T. B. Jefferys says (" Entomologist," xxvii, p. 31) that this 

 species has also been over abundant in many gardens round Langharne, in Carmar- 

 tlicnKhirc, and that the Brussels sprouts have been much affected by them there. — 

 Eustace li. Bankes, The Rectory, Corfc Castle, Dorset : January l^th, 1894. 



