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r October , 



arietis crawling about in one of the oases in his museum on oak branches upon 

 which stuffed birds were placed. These cases appear to have then been put up 

 for nearly five years, and the last branches put in them were procured three years 

 before the insects were seen, and had been well dried over a stove and in a drying- 

 house. 



Our readers may remember a similar occurrence of this Clytus in the British 

 Museum, recorded at p. 286 of Vol. iv. of this Magazine, after an interval of 35 

 years. The beetle may surely adopt " Tempora mutantur, nos haud mutamur in illis" 

 for a motto.— E. C. Rye, 7, Park Field, Putney, S.W. 



Curious capture of Lucanus. — Prospecting yesterday for beetles in Wimbledon 

 Park, I found a ? of Lucanus cervus, quite dead, but still moveable as to its limbs, 

 firmly imbedded in an enormous hard white fungus growing at the root of an old, 

 dead, dried-up beech-tree. The fungus had imprisoned the beetle so tightly (" Quo 

 diable allait-elle faire dans cette Galore ?") that, when I opened it (with a knife and 

 difficulty), I found a perfect cast of the outline of the thorax, scutollum, elytra, &c. 

 —Id., nth September, 1868. 



Occurrence in BHtain of Apion cerdo. — It is with much pleasure that I find 

 myself able to record the discovery of another species of Apion new to Britain. It 

 is a large species, of the subulate rostrum group, its place being between craccce 

 and suhulatum ; and, judging from the monograph by M. Wenckcr of the European 

 species of the genus, I have little hesitation in calling it Apion cerdo, Gerst. It can 

 only be confounded with craccce and suhulatum; from the former of which, inde- 

 pendently of other characters, it will be readily distinguished by its more entirely 

 black colour, and the fact that in both sexes only the first and second joints of the 

 antennae are obscurely ferruginous, the other joints being quit2 black. It has much 

 the appearance of a rather large and robust 4. suhulatum, but is readily distinguished 

 by the very different structure of the rostrum. Confusion is likely to arise, however, 

 from the fact that in suhulatum the structure of the rostrum is very different in the 

 two sexes ; that organ in the ^ being evidently dilated beneath at the base, and 

 thence gradually narrow to the apex ; whilst in the $ it is scarcely dilated at the 

 base, and is longer and thinner than in the <J . Comparing the sexes of A. cerdo 

 with A. suhulatum, I find that the <J much resembles the ? of that species, but 

 has the rostrum thicker and more evidently dilated underneath ; the ? s of the 

 two species are, however, very different, for the ? of A. cerdo, instead of the long 

 thin rostrum of A. suhulatum, has its rostrum very broad and dilated at tho baso 

 (nearly as much so as in A. craccce), and suddenly constricted at the insertion of 

 the antennae. I have found both sexes here on Vicia cracca, in the month of July ; 

 but it appears to be very rare, many visits to the field where I took it having pro- 

 duced me only seven specimens. This is not the first time, however, that the 

 insect has been taken in this country, for Mr. Lennon captured an example in some 

 flood refuse at Dumfries, early in the spring of this year. Tliere is also a specimen 

 of the ? in Mr. G. R. Crotch's collection, taken by Mr. Wollaston, at Killarney. I 

 took a specimen of A. suUilatum on a common species of Vicia with yellow flowers 

 in the same field where I found the A. cerdo— B. Sharp, Bellevue, Thornhill, 

 Dumfries, Septemhcr 1st, 1868. 



