I920. 



Notes. 



25 



NOTES. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Necrobia rufipes in Belfast. 



In November Mr. James Orr, of Garfield Street, Belfast, sent me some 

 little blue beetles which on examination I found to be Necrobia rufipes 

 De G. In reply to inquiries, Mr. Orr very kindly informs me that the 

 beetles were found in a consignment of figs, several boxes of which had 

 gone bad. The gentleman who had to see to the destruction of these 

 bad figs noticed the beetles and passed them on to Mr. Orr. Some of the 

 figs were hard and brittle, and others a mass of powder. No larvae were 

 noticed, but it was plain the beetles had been feeding on the figs. This 

 is a somewhat remarkable circumstance as these beetles are usually feeders 

 on carrion or skins. 



W. F. Johnson. 



Poyntzpass. 



Rhyssa persuasoria in Ireland. 



The following are a few additions to the Irish localities mentioned by 

 Rev. W. F. Johnson in his interesting paper on the habits of Rhyssa 

 persuasoria {Irish Naturalist,. October, 19 19). I first met with this fine 

 ichneumon fly in July, 1906, when a female was captured, flying to a 

 felled pine tree in the Devil's Glen, Co. Wicklow. It has also been reported 

 from Avondale in the same county {British Association Handbook, Dublin, 

 1908). When the Dublin Field Club visited Clongoweswood in May, 1912, 

 I saw many specimens flying about a rustic summer house the posts of 

 which were riddled by the borings of the Great Pine Sawfly {Sirex gigas). 

 The males, which are much rarer than the females, were captured on this 

 occasion. We have also in the Museum collection some female -specimens 

 caught at Mountrath in Queen's County, these vary greatly in size, 

 measuring from about 20 to 35 millimetres in length. In Co. Dublin 

 it has been found by Rev. E. O'Leary at Orlagh College, Rathfarnham, 

 on 3rd July, 1908. 



J. N. Halbert. 



National Museum, Dublin. 



Age of a Plaice. 



It is not often that an opportunity occurs to prove the age of a fish. 

 Vague estimates have been made as to the great age reached by Pike and 

 Carp which are thought by some authorities to reach a hundred years. 

 But we know nothing definite about the age of fish. Some species do 

 not live more than four years, while others die at a still earlier age. Now 

 comes to us from the English Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries the 

 information that the Plaice may reach the age of sixteen years, a fact 

 ascertained by means of an identification disc attached to a young fish 

 in 1904, the specimen having now been recaptured in the North Sea, 



