20 ■ ( January, 



(3). That as regards Coleoptera the excellent list of Dr. J. W. Ellis, published 

 in 1889, forms the base on which new records are made as " additions." 



W. E. Shaep, Ledsham : December, 1897. 



Prosopis dilatata and Megachile versicolor, near Maidstone. — On June 22nd 

 last I was fortunate enough to take a female of Prosopis dilatata in Oaken Wood, 

 and on July 16th in Eing's Wood, a female of Megachile versicolor, burrowing in a 

 piece of decayed oak stump, also two others on August 21st, from the head of a 

 thistle. Coelioxys rujescens probably associates with this Megachile, for close to the 

 spot and on the same day that I took my first specimen I also captured on bramble 

 a male and female of this inquiline. — Hubert Elgar, Assistant Curator, Museum, 

 Maidstone : December, 1897. 



[I have seen these specimens, and although the females of dilatata and Masoni 

 are very hard to distinguish, I think Mr. Elgar's determination is undoubtedly 

 correct.— E. S.] 



Pompilus (Aporus) unicolor, Spin., near Dover. — I took a $ of this rarity at 

 St. Margaret's Bay on August 10th last. -F. W. L. Siaden, Ripple Court, Ring- 

 would, Dover : December 2nd, 1897. 



A freaJc of Nature : Lasiocampa trifolii. — Early in July of last year Mr. Q-ray, 

 Naturalist, of this town (well known for his captures of A. Lathonia nearly twenty 

 years ago), informed me of the curious behaviour of a specimen of Lasiocampa 

 trifolii he had bred. It was one of three which had emerged one afternoon and had 

 not fully expanded its wings, when an evening engagement (which detained Mr. 

 G-ray until a late hour) drew him from home. When the breeding cage was looked 

 at the next morning two of the three inmates were battered and ragged from dashing 

 wildly about, but this specimen (which was the first to emerge) occupied the same 

 position it had first taken up, and was metaphorically " as fresh as paint " two days 

 afterwards. Of course it was duly pinned out, but although in the height of summer, 

 it refused to dry for an unnatural time, and when brought to me a week afterwards 

 was still sufiiciently limp for me to re-arrange the wings to my liking. Mr. Q-ray 

 had assured me that it was not an hermaphrodite or gynandrous specimen, but a 

 pure male, at least so far as the pectinated antennse and wings were concerned, and 

 so I found it, everything purely male and the shape of wings and their coloration 

 normal, but the body was unduly distended, and although not longer than that of 

 the male, of quite a female character, and upon pressure of the abdomen it exuded 

 two or three imperfectly developed eggs. This insect appeared to me sufiiciently 

 curious to mention it to my friends, but I probably should not have recorded it if I 

 had not been urged to do so by Mr. Barrett. — Sydney Webb, Maidstone House, 

 Dover: December, 1897. 



[So strange a freak as this appears to me to be exceptionally worthy of record. 

 This specimen is to all external appearance a male — antennae, thorax, wings, all male 

 — even the abdomen, though thickened, has much the same appearance, since there is a 

 very noticeably expanded anal tuft. But so far as can be ascertained without actual 

 dissection there is no trace of either of the harpes (claspers) or of the uncus (anal 



