1897.] 83 



MESOSA NUBILA IN HUNTINaDONSHIRE. 



BT J. BROWN, F.E.S. 



The scattered woods o£ Huntingdonshire, if taken together, 

 occupy at the present time a considerable area of the county, and, 

 doubtless, these woods at one period were united, and so formed one 

 vast forest, which for many miles extended close to, and partly sur- 

 rounded, the great Fen containing the large Meres, known as 

 " Whittlesea," " TJgg," and "Ramsay;" to enumerate the natural 

 productions of these Fens would occupy too great a space, I will, 

 therefore, leave that for a future paper. « 



Notwithstanding the annual clearances in these woods, Monk's 

 "Wood remains still the largest, other small woods extend north-east 

 towards Ramsay, and north-west to, and across the great north road 

 running into the adjoining county, Northamptonshire. 



Formerly bordering these woods were large grass meadows, where, 

 in the middle of June to July, might be seen many specimens of 

 Aporia cratcegi with wavy flight settling upon flowers ; these meadows 

 were also studded with large hawthorns, from the blossoms of which, 

 at the end of May, numbers of the thick- kneed beetle Osphya hi- 

 punctata might be taken. 



All these woods contain Mesosa nubila. The wood I visited 

 (17 th of April) for this Longicorn beetle was near Ramsay, the oaks 

 in which were very old, some felling was going on, the woodcutters 

 informed me that no oaks had been taken down for fifty years ; on 

 splitting decayed pieces from these trees, I found many perfect 

 specimens of M. nubila and its larvae in all stages under the bark ; 

 and perfect specimens of Plater sanguineus and many of the same 

 from other pieces blown down by high winds in winter. 



This wood, and the others previously mentioned, are open, and 

 free of access to the people of the villages, and an enormous quantity 

 of pieces containing these beetles are collected and broken up for fire- 

 wood ; sometimes the ground within these w'oods is covered with oak 

 branches, whose vitality has been destroyed chiefly by the ravages of 

 the larvae of M. nubila* and other beetles. 



Any Coleopterist desirous of obtaining specimens would be well 

 repaid by a visit to this locality. 



The pieces of oak containing the larvae, pupae, or imago, although 

 upon the ground, continue to supply nourishment ; on examination of 

 these pieces by splitting them, you may trace the galleries made by 



* Here we venture to differ from our correspondent, believing that most of the beetles only 

 stepped in because the vitality of the treea had been impaired from other causes. — Eds. 



