1898.] 16 1 



In the early part of April several captures were made in a sandpit, among them 

 being Oxypoda exoleta, Homalota cegra, several, H. indulia (2), Cassida nobilis (2), 

 and Sibinia primita (1). Meligethes symphyti was found about April 15th in 

 flowers of Lamium album, Taraxacum, and, rarely, Stellaria holosiea ; this insect 

 seems very restricted in its times of appearance, I have taken it during three suc- 

 cessive seasons, from about the foregoing dates till the first or second week in May, 

 after that time it seems to disappear altogether. 



Lathrobiiim punctatum (8 or 9), Stilicus subtilis, Homalota oblongiuscula (2), 

 under dead rabbits, and Balaninus villosus, were also found during April. Nests of 

 Formica fusca yielded four specimens of Somoeusa acuminata during the first week 

 of May, 



Other insects occurring in May and up to this date in June have been Sarpalus 

 azureus, Brachinus crepitans, very common, in many hedgerows and waste places 

 round the town, Medonfusculus, a few under stones, Stenus subceneus, more abund- 

 ant than usual, at roots of grass, &c., on chalky ground, Ocypus similis (1), on 

 roadway, Homalota immersa (2), under bark of oak; Trichonyx MdrJceli, walking 

 about in the vicinity of nests of Formica Jlava and F. fusca ; T. sulcicollis, three 

 specimens taken in the wet rotting wood of an old elm stump, no ants being noticed 

 about the spot ; Meligethes umbrosus (2), on broom ; M. serripes, on many flowers ; 

 Cartodere elongata, in numbers under sappy oak bark ; Ap ion fuscirostre, several 

 on broom ; A. cruentatum (1), in damp meadow. Out of siftings, from dead reeds, 

 collected during Easter in marshy ground just within the county, near Tring, several 

 interesting species were sorted out, including the following : — Homalota fallax (30), 

 Tachyporus pallidus (6), Hypocyptus discoideus (2), Lathrobium Jiliforme {2) , Calo- 

 dera riparia (1), Tachyusa concolor, a few. 



At Tring, in the adjoining county of Hertford, I captured a few evenings ago 

 forty-two examples of CompsoeMlus palpalis. They were obtained by sweeping 

 short . grass beneath a grove of elms in a marshy field, between 6.30 and 7.30 p.m. 

 The wind was blowing freshly from the N.W. at the time. — E. GrEO. Elliman, 

 Chesham, Bucks : June ^th, 1898. 



OtiorrhyncJius raucus, F., and other Coleoptera in the Chatham District. — On 

 Saturday, June 11th, I found Otiorrhynchus raucus in some numbers at Cobham 

 Park, in heaps of recently cut grass. This weevil is usually by no means common, 

 and I had hitherto only taken a single specimen in the Chatham district, as long 

 ago as 1873. Mr. W. H. Harwood informs me that he finds 0. raucus at Colchester 

 under similar circumstances. 



As on the corresponding Saturday of last year {cf. Ent. Mo. Mag., xxxiii, p. 

 160), my afternoon's collecting, on practically the same ground as was travei'sed on 

 that occasion, was so successful as to induce me to give a list of the principal species 

 of Coleoptera obtained, chiefly by general sweeping. These include Harpalus punc- 

 tatulus, several in the above-mentioned heaps of grass ; Staphylinus latebricola, 

 Neuraphes longicollis fprceteritus,'Rye), Colon serripes, Trachys pumila. Corymb ites 

 tessellatus (new to district), Malachius marginellus, Tetratoma awcora, and Smi' 

 cronyx Reichei, single specimens of each ; Ceuthorrhynchus urticm (10) and C. 

 suturellus (2), in the old locality at Snodland, where Donacia ajffinis was abundant 

 on a small patch of rnslics ; Cryptocephalus lineola, locally common on hazel on 



o 



