﻿1870.] 259 



at Shirley : subsinuata, Er., a few specimens at Hampstead and Shirley, in dead 

 leaves : orphana, Er., 1 specimen near Weybridge. — G. C. Champion, 274, Walworth 

 Road, S., 29th January, 1870. 



Capture of Rhizophagus cribratus in quantity. — Whilst pupa-digging round an 

 old oak in Studley Park this afternoon, I came upon a piece of decayed fungoid 

 growth on the tree root, about an inch in diameter, covered with R. cribratus. 

 Bottling being rather cold work, I put the whole piece in a pill-box, and now find 

 that it contained more than sixty specimens of the beetle. — Edward A. Wateehouse, 

 Fountains' Hall, Ripon, March 1th, 1870. 



Notes on the ceconomy of Abdera bifasciata. — My attention was one day attracted 

 by a rotten oak-stick lying on the ground, from the circumstance that the bark on 

 one side presented numerous minute circular holes irregularly disposed. My 

 immediate conclusion was that I had come across traces of some Tomicus ; but, on 

 cutting into the stick, I found that each hole led into a little cul-de-sac, one-fourth 

 to one-third of an inch long, lying parallel with the fibres of the wood. This was 

 obviously the work of some insect ; but, as clearly, not of any of the Hylesinidce. 

 I was further puzzled by the inadequateness of the removed material to have fed 

 an insect of the size indicated by the exit aperture. I have not since found any 

 stick containing these holes so abundantly as this first one ; but I soon after 

 found sticks similarly perforated, and almost invariably found the holes associated 

 with the presence on the stick of the remains of a fungus. Last spring, I succeeded 

 in finding sticks still inhabited by the larvae that make these holes, and from which 

 I reared Abdera bifasciata. The fungus, of which I have mentioned that traces 

 always accompanied the perforations, is Corticium quercinum, P. The larva of 

 Abdera feeds in reality not on oak-wood, but on the Corticium; and the reason that my 

 first stick was so puzzling was, that all ti*ace of the Corticium had disappeared from 

 it. The Corticium, though certainly not rare, is only to be found in its appropriate 

 habitat, which, as far as my observations go, is on the branches of from one to 

 three inches in diameter that die and become rotten on the tree. The fungus 

 grows on the under-side of these branches, and though only, I suppose, really 

 alive for one season, its dry remains may continue for several years, and I have 

 found larvse in it in its second year. Its favourite tree is the oak, but I have 

 also found it on ash. 



Such rotten branches as the Corticium affects aie usually broken off piece- 

 meal by the wind ; and, should they happen to fall when the Corticium is in suitable 

 condition, the larva of Abdera is easily found beneath it. As I have informed 

 several of my correspondents that the Corticium grows on the branches after they 

 have fallen, I wish especially to point out that this is not the case ; and that, 

 although the fallen branches only are available in searching for the insect, the 

 proper habitat of the fungus, and consequently of the beetle, is, I have fully 

 satisfied myself, on the tree, and their being on the ground is to be regarded as an 

 accident. 



The Corticium is a thin fleshy fungus of a reddish-chocolate colour, lying flat 

 against the bark on which it grows, but of a tougher consistence than its appearance 



