1894.] 261 



otherwise always on Centaurea. The similarity of the white tailed form of the $ 

 of soroensis (the only one I have found about here) to that of terrestris, var. lucorum, 

 is extreme. The first day that I met with it I caught two or three males, this 

 made me look specially for the 5 > and I captured several specimens, hoping that 

 they might prove to be of this species, but on my return home I was quite unable 

 to feel certain that they were distinct from terrestris. I had no individuals of 

 terrestris to compare them with, and although from taking them all on Centaurea, 

 which the ^ also visited, I felt confident that they ought to be soroensis, it was 

 not until to-day, when I caught a veritable ^ lucorum, that I was able to make up 

 my mind for certain as to their identity. With the two species in front of one it is 

 not very diiEcult to separate them, but it is difficult to express in words the exact 

 characteristics of each ; soroensis, as is well known, is most protean in its coloration, 

 sometimes resembling terrestris, sometimes pratorum, and occasionally occurring 

 nearly black ; from terrestris the white tailed form of the ^ can only be distinguished 

 by the rather less definite abdominal bands, the 1st segment having a few yellow 

 hairs on each side, and the 2nd a few black hairs at the apex, especially in the 

 middle, which disposition of the hairs gives the bands a less straight and definite 

 appearance ; the face is also distinctly longer and more narrowed towards the apex 

 than that of terrestris. Still I cannot help feeling great doubts whether I should 

 have suspected the workers I have caught here of being those of soroensis had I not 

 first captured some males ; these are quite distinct from terrestris $ , being much 

 narrower and less bulky, the legs much thinner, and the posterior metatarsi finer 

 and more narrowed at the base, and fringed on their upper margin with long, fine 

 hairs. The scarcity of Hymenoptera at Ilfracombe is very extraordinary ; although 

 the weather has been magnificent, I have met with no Aculeates except humble 

 bees and wasps, with the exception of a very few Halicti, two or three Crahro^s, and 

 two females of Andrena denticulata. In most places yellow Compositce would 

 swarm with $ Halicti, but here one passes any quantity of these flowers without 

 seeing a single individual. — Edward Satjndees, Ilfracombe : September 15th, 1894. 



Fericoma revisenda, Etn., and Pst/choda erminea, Etn., near Sherborne, Dorset- 

 shire. — However wide may be their distribution (the Psychoda ranges to Algeria) 

 these species are apparently so very local that their occurrence in a new locality 

 seems worth recording. Between six and seven miles from Sherborne, on the way 

 to Dorchester, an old cart road leads through the woods and fields to the right, on 

 the confines of Middlemarsh Common and Grange Wood, and soon forks right and 

 left. The left hand branch runs southwards to Lyon's Gate, passing between Grange 

 Wood and Gore Wood as an enclosed lane. Near the southern end of this lane a 

 specimen of P. revisenda was beaten out of hazel at the side of a streamlet by a 

 cottage on the 4th instant. Two specimens of Ps. erminea were caught the same 

 day — one beaten out of the hedge of Gore Wood in the lane, at a damp corner by a 

 gate ; the other out of low hci-bage or hazel at a moist place in the hedge dividing 

 Grange Wood from the aforesaid Common. A third specimen was taken at the very 

 same spot on August 29th. In the net Ps. erminea appears darker than Ps. phalca- 

 noides, but not quite so dark as Ps. sexpunctata ; and the dark tufts and spots on 

 the wings, indistinctly visible to the unaided eye, contribute to its recognition. — 

 A. E. Eaton, Wcstrow, IIolwcll, Sherborne, Dorset : September Wth, 1894. 



