191S.] • 17 



it laid seveu eggs on a small twig of lieatlier which I had enclosed with it. 

 After this effort, it seemed to become numbed, moving about slowly, and 

 seeming to have lost the pow-er of holding on by its claws, and then it soon 

 died. The eggs are not inserted in the tissues of the plant, but are attached to 

 the exterior amongst the needle-like leaves by a gummy secretion. They 

 usually lie on one side, but some are attached by the posterior pole. They are 

 mther striking objects, of a very dark, shiny, pitchy-brown colour, and sur- 

 mouuted by a curious whitish crown at the anterior end, which makes them 

 somewhat conspicuous. A good description of the ova has been given by 

 De Geer, who, however, calls them black instead of dark pitchy-brown, as mine 

 certainly were. The shape, cylindrical and slightly curved, is very similar to 

 that of certain Nabidae which I have been able to obtain, e.g. Nabis major 

 aiid N. ritgosus, and is also not unlike that of the bed-bug, but there is more 

 elaboration about the coronal cap. In view of the scarcity of suitable food for 

 the young Reduviids during the winter months on an open heath such as 

 Coranus delights in, it seems probable that eggs laid in October would remain 

 in that condition through the winter and not hatch until the following" 

 spring.— E. A. Butler, 14 Drylands Road, Hornsey, N. 8 c Oct. 9th, 1917. 



Additional localities for Eriococciis dedoniensis Green. — Mr. E. E. Green, 

 in recording Dr. Imms' capture cf this Coccid at Delamere, Cheshire (Ent. 

 Mo. INfag., Nov. 1917, p. 261), refers to this as the third locality ; he has 

 evidently not seen my record of the species for two other counties — (1) Chester- 

 le-Street, Durham (Vasculura, vol. ii, no. 3, p. 92 ; (2) Yorkshire (Entomolo- 

 gist, vol. xlix, Aug. 1916, p. 173). In both instances I corrected the error with 

 regard to the food plant. I can now add two more counties and several other 

 localities to its known range. It occurs in extreme abundance on every Cleve- 

 land Moor I have visited, although there it can never exceed the numbers 

 massed together in one limited area on Waldridge Fell, Durham. During 

 August, 1917, 1 wandered over the Fells near Alston, where Cumberland and 

 Northumberland meet, and I discovered the insect in both the counties in 

 question — in some casfis very freely. Lastly, whilst examining various Eri- 

 caceous plants in company with my friend Bagnall in the far west of Durham, 

 far away from its lowland habitat, I detected the insect in some numbers on 

 l^ Erica tetralix not far from Stanhope, and later in the same day near Waskerley 

 Reservoir. — J. VV. Heslop Harrison, D.Sc, Zoological Dept,, Armstrong 

 College, Newcastle-on-Tyne : Dec^ 1917. 



A Hymenopterous note from the Eastern Front. — A small bee liaa made 

 herself unpopular by building solitary cells of leaf and wax in the stethoscopes 

 of several of the officers of the 66th General Hospital up in the mountains 

 east of Salonika. No fewer than four of our medical officers have broUofht 

 similar specimens to me. The little creature is most industrious, and one sees 

 her crawling into the chest-piece of the stethoscope every few minutes to her 

 cells in the rubber-tubes beyond. We have amused ourselves by detaching 

 the chest-piece from the rubber and watching her consternation when she 

 emerges from the forked end of the chest-piece into the light of day instead of 

 her cell (this has been known to be varied with bets on which side she emerge;^ 

 from), and when she has recovered from her surprise she tries again and goes 

 up the other tube. When the nest has been rudely extruded (in order to use 



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