INSECTS outhouse at Plaistow by Mr. Hindley. Obrium cantharinum was bred in some numbers by Dr. Power from aspen bark obtained at Wanstead ; it has also been taken at Epping and Leytonstone. Molorchus minor is occa- sionally found in the Colchester district, but is decidedly rare ; and Strangalia quadrifasciata is frequently met with in certain woods in the Tendring Hundred. 5. revesfita has been beaten from oak in Hainault Forest (Zoologist, ii. 414). Mesosa nubila has severalt imes been taken in the woods at St. Osyth. Saperda carcbarias occurs very sparingly at Col- chester, and Phytcecia cylindrica at Aldham. Orsodacna lineola and 0. cerasi occur pretty regularly in one restricted locality at Colchester, where the very rare Zeugopbora flavicollis was obtained in 18967. The handsome Cryptocephalus sex-punctatus and Crepidodera nitidula have also been found on two or three occasions in fair numbers in the Colchester and St. Osyth woods, but are always very local and generally extremely scarce. Helops caruleus is not often met with, but a single decaying tree occasionally yields a large number of specimens, as was the case with a mulberry tree in a Colchester garden, and an elm tree embedded in the sand on the Clacton coast. Cistela ceramboides was obtained at Colchester in 1900. Tetratoma desmaresti was found by Mr. E. W. Janson in Hainault Forest in 18457. Meloe rugosus was taken in some numbers by Mr. Frederick Smith and the Rev. H. S. Gorham at Southend, and also by Dr. Power at Prittle- well. Lytta vesicatoria, familiarly known as the Spanish Fly or Blister Beetle, is very rarely met with, but in 1837 appeared in immense num- bers in the Colchester district, when it is said that every ash tree was swarming with specimens. In much more recent years the species was again taken rather freely by Mr. J. G. Grapes at Donyland, but other entomologists have assiduously searched for it to no purpose. 1 Platyr- rhinus latirostris was captured in Hainault Forest in 1843, and Choragus sheppardi has been taken at Southend. Three or four specimens of the very rare Cleonus albidus have been captured on the coast sands, but none have been seen recently. The family Bagous contains a number of rare species, and of these B. fefro, B. cylindrus^ B. argillaceus, B. litnosus and B. subcarinatus are all found in the county. Balaninus cerasorum may occasionally be obtained on birch and alder in the Colchester district. And lastly Larinus sco/ymt, a large and conspicuous south European insect, was captured at Colchester in 1900, and is recorded here as in case of its re-occurrence in Britain the date of its first appearance will be interesting. It would be possible to extend these notes indefinitely, but the sub- ject is much too extensive to be treated exhaustively in what purposes to be simply a local list. 1 This fine insect again occurred in considerable numbers near Colchester in 1901. 119
