Insects, 1043 



Capture of Stauropus Fagi at Hammersmith. I was not a little surprized and 

 pleased at meeting with a fine female specimen of this rare insect, resting on the trunk 

 of a small plum-tree, in a garden adjoining my own at Hammersmith, yesterday morn- 

 ing, and within a dozen yards of my own house. I have been twice down to Black- 

 park this spring, in search of it, without success; so to find it so close at home was 

 very remarkable. It is quite possible it might have come from Lord Holland's park, 

 which is within half a mile. I certainly never expected to take a lobster in a market- 

 gardeners ground. — Samuel Stevens ; 38, King St., Covent Garden, June 18, 1845. 



Capture of Hymenopterous and Coleopterous Insects in Hampshire. During an en- 

 tomological excursion in Hampshire on the 21st and two following days of the present 

 month, I made a few observations and captures perhaps worth recording, as they may 

 furnish data for the use of others : and the time of an insect's appearance is almost as 

 necessary to be known as its locality ; it constitutes, in fact, an essential part of an in- 

 sect's history. A want of attention to this particular detracts very much from the use- 

 fulness of some of our best works on British insects. Thus, Shuckard's ' Fossorial 

 Hymenoptera' is very incomplete in this necessary information. 



Hymenoptera. Andrena fulvescens, male and female. 



Miscus campestris, abundant. Panurgus ursinus. 



Tachytes unicolor, 3, male and female. Nomada ferruginata, male and female. 



Miscophus bicolor, 1 female. 



Crabro citratus, 2, male and female. Coleoptera. 



tibialis. Anomala Frischii. 



Eumenes atricornis, 18, male and female. Elater ephippium, 14. 

 Andrena Rosa?, 12, male and female. Otiorhynchus Ligustici, 3, in gravel-pits. 



I make no mention of a host of both Coleoptera and Hymenoptera, of more common 

 occurrence. Tachytes unicolor is rare in cabinets, and has only been taken at Black 

 Gang Chine, except by myself, on this and one previous occasion. Crabro citratus 

 was first described by Shuckard, and is rare. Eumenes was by no means uncommon. 

 I found them flying about the turf-wall enclosures, settling occasionally on the flowers 

 of the heath. Andrena fulvescens. — Of this bee I found an extensive colony, occupy- 

 ing upwards of twenty yards of a hard-trodden gravel pathway, at the corner of a com- 

 mon. There were hundreds of their little hillocks thrown up round the entrance to 

 their burrows; and the bees were so multitudinous, that their united hum resembled 

 that of a hive of bees. Nomada ferruginata is parasitic upon this species of Andrena. 

 Elater ephippium. — I first discovered the locality of this insect in 1841 : it is a spot 

 of very unpromising aspect to a collector. In the middle of an extensive moor are 

 two fields enclosed ; and at a short distance from the hedge, facing the south-east, are 

 three stunted white-thorn bushes, which put forth in May a few shoots of flowers ; at 

 the time when these are dying off, and the bushes are infested with Aphides, and the 

 leaves covered with honey-dew, the Elater is to be met with. I caunot imagine whence 

 they come, unless it be out of the decaying stumps of the white-thorns, as there are 

 no old trees in the vicinity. At the distance of half a mile is a young plantation of 

 fir, and there are also young oak trees in the hedge enclosing the field before men- 

 tioned. I have searched in vain on the more healthy whitethorns in the vicinity. — 

 Frederick Smith ; 5, High St., Newington Butts, June 30, 1845. 



Occurrence of Drypta emarginata and Lymnceum nigropiceum in the Isle of Wight. 

 The Rev. Mr. Dawson, of Ventnor, informs me that he has met with these rare Cole- 

 optera, during the present summer, in his own neighbourhood : of the Drypta, only 



