30 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
place at the side of the hole, and had got 
the spider in there. The ichneumon was 
a little larger than the common one 
which infests the larva of Mamestra Per- 
sicarice, and black, except a band of 
bright orange-red, extending from the 
thorax nearly half-way along the abdo- 
men. The spider was one of the large 
light-coloured ground spiders. I expect 
the ants were Formica rufa . their 
strength astonished me; I killed a 
Cicindela campestris and gave, it them, 
and three or four of them carried it off: 
they seem able to carry several times 
their own weight. — Id. 
COLEOPTERA. 
Biphyllus lunatus is again far from 
rare on the Fungi here ; and should any 
collectors of Coleoptera be still in want of 
the species, 1 shall feel great pleasure in 
supplying them. — George Harding, 
Jon., Stapleton, near Bristol ; April 13, 
1857. 
Drypta emarginata.— On the 18th iust. 
I had the pleasure of seeing alive one of 
these hitherto rare beetles, also thirty 
dead ones, and a lot of other rarities just 
captured by Dr. Power, near Alverstoke. 
— J. W. Douglas, Lee, London ; April 
20, 1857. 
The water-beetles now begin to show 
themselves, especially if they are fished 
for. In a favourite old pond near here, 
in which there is very little depth of 
water, and the surface of which it is dif- 
ficult to see, by reason of the thick growth 
of water-plants, some species now 
abound. Agabus ayilis and A. ajjinis 
are literally common ; and if I were to 
judge by one day’s experience I should 
say the same of Colymbetes Grapii, of 
which I saw Dr. Power take sixteen in 
two or three dips. I had then no water- 
net; and when I went the next day, pro- 
vided with one, I could find only one ex- 
ample of C. Grapii; and the Doctor, at 
a second visit, only got four or live. But 
there are, doubtless, many more left, and 
I mean to get some of them when they 
have recovered from their fright. They 
are only to be found in a shallow place, 
at the margin, where the water comes up 
over the grass. Two or three species of 
Hydropori abound ; also some of the 
small P/iilhydrida, and now and then 
an Tlybius aler and I. obscurus jump out 
of the dibris in the net. It is a curious 
thing in getting water-beetles that it 
seems impossible to exhaust a place 
where you have begun to dip ; you often 
get more the second or third time than 
the first ; and after twenty hauls, when 
the water has become quite muddy, they 
still come in troops. All round this pond 
two grasses, Dactylis glomeratus and Aira 
ccespilosa , grow plentifully in great tufts, 
and in these I find quantities of Geode- 
phaya, they having chosen the tufts for 
their winter quarters. I take a sharp 
knife and sever the tuft at the roots, or 
rather through them, thus literally cut- 
ting the ground from under the feet of 
the tenants above ; then I pull the tuft 
to pieces over a sheet of brown paper, 
and out the sleepers tumble: sometimes 
there are but few, at other times there 
are dozens. If the weather be cold they 
lie still, but if warm they scamper off in 
all directions. In this way I have taken 
Anchomenus gracilis, perhaps the best of 
the Geodephaya here, two or three Psela- 
phidce, and many species of Slaphyli- 
nidcc ; but the best way to get small 
species of the latter is to take home the 
refuse left on the paper and examine it 
on a sheet of white paper. — J. W. 
Douglas, 6, Ringnuood Place, Lee; 
April 10, 1857. 
Dipteba. 
Larva: of Tipnlidce . — I very much 
want some larvae of J'ipulida, and should 
be much obliged to any one who would 
send me some. — J ohn Lubbock, 11, 
Mansion House Street, London; April 
14, 1857. 
