9l4j [Septembei-, 



in the same style as the Astatus, and often deceiving one for the moment as to its 

 identity. Mr. Bloomfield, who sent a specimen to Dr. Meade for examination, tells 

 me that it is Scopolia carbonaria, Pz. 



I watched very carefully to try and discover what the prey of Astatus stigma 

 might be, but I could not catch one either carrying off anything or in the act of 

 seizing it. There were larvae of Trapezonotus agrestis, PUnthisus hrevipennis, and 

 Nysius thymi, any of which Hemiptera would probably have been suitable to its 

 wants, but they are all members of the family Lygceidce, whereas Aslata hoops 

 always selects larvae of PentatomidcB, and it would have been interesting to have 

 found out if these allied species differed in the style of food they provided for 

 their young. I learn from Mr. F. W. L. Sladen that he has also been taking A. 

 stigma, so that this year seems to have been favourable to it. The only other 

 fossorials I found on the sand hills were the two species of Tachytes, Pom.pilus 

 plumheus rarely !, P. gibhus ? - !, and Diodontiis minutus. This seems to me an ex- 

 traordinarily poor record. The locality appears to be a perfect one for Hymenoptera, 

 and although June and early July is not the best season for Fossors, still six species 

 only, ought to make any respectable locality blush ! 



The other rarity I found was Sphecodes rubicundus {S and ?) flying about, 

 and on one occasion entering, the burrows of Andrena labialis, which bee simply 

 swarmed along the low cliffy banks of the shore to the east beyond Eustington. 

 Mr. Sladen, in this Magazine (vol. xxiii, p. 256), records its capture in a bank at 

 Ringwould, near Devon, in company with Eucera, Andrena labialis and nigroanea. 

 The banks in which I took it were also tenanted by Eucera and A. nigrocenea, but 

 Andrena labialis was present in the proportion of at least 200 to 1 of either of 

 these, in fact, the Sphecodes itself was more abundant than either the Eucera 

 or the A. nigrocenea, so that I think it may be taken for granted that labialis 

 is its host, even if it occasionally visits the others. On rather a higher piece of the 

 bank nearer Littlehampton Eucera was fairly abundant, but there I found only 

 Sphecodes gibbus and pilifrons, these no doubt associating with their usual hosts, 

 Halictus rubicundus and leucozonius, both of which were nesting on the same spot. 

 — Edward Saundeks, St. Ann's, Woking : August 2nd, 1891. 



John Van Voorst, F.L.S., Sfc. — As announced on the cover of our last No. Mr. 

 Van Voorst, the publisher of this Magazine from its commencement in 1864 down 

 to his retirement in 1886, died at his residence in Queen's Eoad, Clapham Park, on 

 July 24-th, at the patriarchal age of 94, from simple decay of nature. He had 

 practically been confined to bed for several months, but his intellect remained clear 

 almost to the last moment. He was the last male descendant of a Dutch family 

 that had been settled in England for many generations ; being unmarried, the family 

 name is now extinct. He was born on February 15th, 1804, and early in life was 

 apprenticed to a bookseller at Wakefield, and was afterwards for some years in the 

 great publishing house of Longmans and Co. ; establishing himself at No. 1, Pater- 

 noster Row in 1833. He commenced by associating the highest class of wood 

 engraving with literary works, and later on with those on Natural History and other 

 branches of science. As examples of the success of this we need only allude to Yarrell's 



