324 



On Berwickshire Insects. No. III. By James Haedy. 



I have had very little leisure this season to devote to Insects 

 in Berwickshire, a portion of three days being all the time I 

 could spare ; my object being to pick up some of the Saw- 

 flies while they were prevalent, the period of their occurrence 

 being very ephemeral. Those I was unacquainted with 

 were submitted to Mr. Cameron, of Glasgow, who knows 

 more about the Tenthredinidse than any other British 

 naturalist ; and he also examined the more select Cheviot 

 species of this little studied family, and I owe to him some 

 of the synonyms. Others there were that I had previously 

 in my collection. 



COLEOPTERA. 

 Obchestes sciJTELiiAEis. In June I noticed considerable numbers 

 on alders, of a very pale colour as if newly hatched, on the 

 Tower burn, near the Pease Mill. 

 Sitones lineatus, and the Bean Aphis. The Sitones were very 

 prevalent in bean-fields throughout the season. They appeared 

 in crowds upon the walls along the sea-banks, in calm days, 

 about the 21st April, evidently an immigrant association ; and, 

 shortly after, the fields were occupied by them, and the leaves 

 of the young plants were nibbled on the edges, and assumed 

 a pinched appearance. The Sitones did much to keep the crop 

 back ; the beans were sown on a dry bed, and never had a 

 shower to promote the vigorous growth adequate to shake off 

 the effects of insect attacks. While thus languishing, they 

 were overspread by the black Aphis Rumicis, to a degree that 

 I never saw equalled. The plants, covered by them as if with 

 gunpowder, became also black, and withered away in patches. 

 The evil symptoms soon became apparent without need of a 

 close examination, by tokens of untimely ripeness breaking 

 out in spots among the healthy plants that still continued clean 

 and robust. The Aphides were attacked by Syrphus larvae ; 

 and Coccinella septempunctata and its larva were far beyond 

 their legitimate numbers, but without apparently diminishing 

 the Aphid swarms, which also covered, with a loathsome crust, 

 thistles, docks, and almost all sorts of weeds. A solitary Lap- 

 wing frequented one field for about three months, from May to 

 July, the abundance of food overcoming its gregarious pro- 

 pensities. Altogether, the bean crops along the coast were 

 either deficient or failures. 



HYMENOPTERA. 



TENTHEEDINIDiE (SAW-FLIES). 

 Cimbex eemorata, L. Near Ayton. In former years I took it 

 in numbers about Swinton Hill. 



