Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/143

Rh finest Geodephagous beetles; whilst whole genera of other less ornamented kinds swarm there, although rare in other localities. The heated banks of damp moss left by the retreating waters of these pools, glitter with a profusion of bright creatures, whose forms, motions and economy the entomologist will never observe in any other situation.

Towards June the profusion of Geodephagous Coleoptera declines, and gives place to a no less abundance of other widely different tribes of the same order. The rushes, water-lilies, potamogetons &c. swarm with many species of herbivorous genera, such as Donacia, Cyphon, Atopa, Campylus, Crioceris, Haltica, Cassida and others.

I subjoin the names of some of the insects taken in such situations during the last season, in the neighbourhood of Leicester and Charnwood Forest. I have affixed an asterisk to those which were of rare occurrence.

Chlænius nigricornis and melanocornis* (Zeigler): the Chlænii we used to find submerged in sheets of moss, far in the water; Agonum marginatum (F.), viduum, mcestum, afrum,* consimile,* Simpsoni* (Spence), gracile, piceum and picipes; A. marginatum was abundant on the sandy parts of the banks, such being apparently its favourite haunts; my specimens of A. afrum are beautifully distinct from those of mcestum, to which it is so nearly allied: Oodes helopioides: Blethisa multipunctata; this insect was abundant in April, and is more partial to water than any of its congeners, its most usual abode being in the roots and lower part of the stem of the Iris, fairly surrounded by the water, from which, on being disturbed, it scampered off in all directions in flocks of a dozen at a time: Elaphrus uliginosus,* cupreus and riparius, Curtonotus piceus,* Peryphus nitidulus (Marsh), Notaphus undulatus and ustulatus, Leistus rufescens, Atopa cervina, Cyphon testaceus, Heterocerus flexuosus, Parnus impressus (Curtis), Hypolithus riparius, Campylus linearis, Donacia crassipes, on the water-lily in June; D. cincta on various species of Potamogeton in August; D. dentata on Sagittaria sagittifolia in July; D. Proteus (Kunzé), linearis and simplex, common on rushes; D. rustica, nigra and Menyanthidis, on Iris Pseudacorus in June; D. Lemnæ, Sagittariæ and Typhæ: Cassida obsoleta (Dejean), on wild mint.—Henry Walter Bates; Queen St., Leicester, January 3, 1843.

Note on the occurrence of certain Coleopterous Insects at Launceston, Cornwall. I submit to your inspection the following list of the Coleoptera, which, after an accurate observation for the last two or three years, I have found more particularly to inhabit the neighbourhood of Launceston. As the Natural History of Cornwall has been