260 [November, 



the weather was tolerable. The females and workers were common on flowers of all 

 kinds. I saw them visiting potatoes, clover, thistles, dead nettles, and heather, but 

 they seemed to have a special affection for the scabious. 



For " nivalis " I looked in vain in Unst, but, on returning to Lerwick, I was 

 delighted at last to come across it. My first specimens were taken on September 4th, 

 and from that day to the IStli, when I left Shetland, I never failed to find it on my 

 walks over the hills, though it was by no means so common as Smithianus, and 

 appeared to confine its visits entirely to the small heather, on whose flowers I took 

 all the sexes in abundance. I did not succeed, however, in finding any of its nests. 

 The moment I had extracted the $ armature, I felt satisfied that Mr. Saunders was 

 right in his expectation (see Synopsis, p. 237), that "nivalis" would prove to be a 

 variety of ScrimsMranus. It is, no doubt, a very distinct variety ; but that it is 

 specifically distinct seems to me no longer conceivable. 



I was less surprised by what I found in Shetland, than by what I did not find. 

 No bees whatever, except these two remarkable species ; no wasps, nor fossors ; no 

 ants, except Myrmica ruginodis ! Even Apis meWfica seems to be wholly unknown 

 in the islands ; a negative proof of which is that Bomhus Smithianus regvilarly goes 

 there by the name of the " hive bee," and its burrows are called by the natives 

 " hives." I heard rumours of the existence in some places of a " mason wasp," 

 which I suppose would be some kind of Odynerus, but I could not find it. No 

 doubt I was late in the season, and there surely must be some kinds of Andrena and 

 Halictus to be encountered earlier in the year ; but my actual experiences were as I 

 have stated, and I was a good deal surprised by them. 



On my way home I had one day (September 14th) in Orkney, and did my best 

 to ascertain in that time how far the Aculeata of the two groups of islands agreed 

 or differed. Three kinds of bee presented themselves, Psithyrus vestalis, Bonibus 

 distinguendus, and a tawny Bomhus with pale under-side, which I naturally took for 

 agrorum or venustus, probably the former. However, after reaching home and ex- 

 tracting the armatures, I found that on comparison they agreed with neither of those 

 species. The pale under-side prevented rae from thinking of Smithianus, and one 

 idea alone suggested itself, that they might be the " cognatus " of Schmiedeknecht, 

 which is only known to me through his description and plate. Ultimately I sent 

 them to Mr. Saunders, who considers that (the pale hairs notwithstanding) my 

 insects are specimens of Smithianus. The normal black-haired Smithianus did not 

 occur to me in Orkney, nor did I see anything thei-e that could represent " nivalis." 

 But of course one cannot lay much stress on the negative results of a single day's 

 hunting, and that, too, in weather which was not particularly favourable for the 

 appearance of Hymenoptera. — F. D. MoRiCE, Rugby : September, 1894. 



Bomhus soroensis, Fab., at Ilfracomhe. — Some years ago I captured a single $ 

 of Bomhus soroensis in this neighbourhood, but have not met with it anywhere else, 

 so that I have never had any opportunity of becoming acquainted with the species 

 in the field. I have, however, during the last week met with it in tolerable plenty 

 and in several localities, so that I imagine that it is pretty generally distributed 

 about Ilfracombe. It seems to prefer the ordinary Centaurea (C nigra) to any other 

 plant ; occasionally I have found it on thistles, and once or twice on brambles, but 



