NOTES ON NEW AND RARE LOCAL 13EP:TLES. 419 



suggestive of a parasite, especially in light of the record above 

 quoted. So after the writer had taken a single example from 

 beneath the bark of a Trypodend>'07i-\x\{esie.di birch (Winlaton, 

 Co. Durham, 13. vi. 06), and further solitary specimens on 

 three occasions the following week, in order to ascertain 

 whether the beetle was truly parasitic three hours were spent 

 one evening (25. vi. 06) sitting on a waterproof sheet watching 

 the Trypodendroii borings. The Scolytids' hind-part con- 

 tinually appeared and disappeared in many holes, and after 

 an hour's patient waiting the quivering antennae of a small 

 beetle were dimly seen, and a sharp knife thrust into the wood 

 at an angle to the hole effectively cut off retreat and brought 

 to light not the Eptircea, but Acntlia inflata. At the end of 

 three hours, when owing to the deepening dusk (not to mention 

 a bladeless knife), further operations had to be postponed, 

 three fine examples of E. angushila had been taken in a like 

 manner, and further vigils at dusk resulted in many specimens 

 being found within the galleriesf. Considering these facts 

 there is little doubt that E. angustiila is truly parasitic upon 

 various species of the genus Trypodendroii : it enters the 

 gallery after the mother-borer has laid her eggs, and most 

 probably laying a small batch of eggs departs to another 

 burrow to repeat the performance (though, of course, it may 

 confine its attention to only one gallery), and the Eptima 

 no doubt spends its larval days in plenty, subsisting on 

 Trypodendroii grubs. 



The hypothesis as to the parasitic nature of AcruUa 

 inflata, a small semi-globular {i.e. inflated) Staphylinid closely 

 allied to, and at one time embodied in the genus Homalium, 

 Grav., merely rests on the fact that, after taking an example 

 at Gibside beneath the bark of a Trypodendron-mi&sted. 

 beech tree (24. iii. 06), and later from beneath the bark of the 

 above-mentioned, birch (Winlaton, $ and $, 9. vi. 06) four 



t Dr. Joy tells me that Ms single example of Epurcea angustula -was captured 

 Tjeneath the bark of a holly attacked by 1\ domesticum, whilst Mr. Moi'se, who 

 has recently taken so many rare species of Scolytidce, and to whom I mentioned 

 captiu'ing E. angustula with Ttypodendron, reports taking two with T. domesticum at 

 Ke>VTiham, Glos., and also three specimens at birch sap, Roundhay Pa^-k, Leeds. 



