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 INSECTS - Land's End district and the Isles of Scilly. In the Transactions of the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society, new series, vol. i (1880-4), E. D. Marquand gives a list of about four hundred and fifty species collected in that area, and supplements it towards the close of the same volume by thirty-eight more. In vol. iii of the same Transactions the Rev. John Isabell of Sennen, contributes a list of about a hundred additional species, thus raising the total to about six hundred. A paper by Marquand, ' The Beetles of West Cornwall,' in the Report of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society for 1 88 1, and a list of Coleoptera from the Isles of Scilly by G. C. Champion in vol. xxxiv of the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, supplemented in vol. xxxv by the reprint of a Scillonian list by Fred Holmes that originally appeared in 1836 in vol. ii of the Transactions of the Entomological Society, practically complete the literature of the Cornish Coleoptera. The material for this article has for the most part been brought together by the exertions of the students of the County Technical Schools at Truro, and there are few districts in Cornwall in which they have not collected. The work done by Mr. A. G. Peter around Launceston, by Mr. H. Thomas at Lostwithiel and the valley of the Lynher, and by Mr. F. J. Polkinghorne, Mr. Joseph Tregelles, and the late Mr. R. O. Waters around Truro, has been of exceptional value. The amount done by the many willing workers may be to some extent realized from the fact that they have among them enabled the writer to add about eight hundred species to the county list. In addition to this indispensable work by the students, the writer received invaluable help from Mr. J. H. Keys of Plymouth, who has assiduously collected for years in the extreme south-east of the county, and who kindly prepared an annotated list of all the Cornish species he had taken. His cordial thanks are also due to Mr. E. C. H. Davies of St. Issey for local collec- tions, to Mr. C. G. Lamb of Cambridge University, and to the Rev. J. Isabell of Sennen for notes of captures on the north coast. More than sixty years ago the late Vernon Wollaston remarked that Cornwall and he referred more especially to the eastern parts of the county was one of the poorest districts for beetles he had ever searched. So far as the total number of individuals is concerned its poverty, even in many apparently favourable localities, is still very evident to anyone who has collected elsewhere. Occasionally, of course, a particular species may locally become extraordinarily abundant, like Otiorrhynchus picipes about Gulval in 1878, Rhizotrogus solstitialis at Bodmin in 1892, Ceutorrhynchus litura in the Land's End district in 1899, the ordinary cockchafer at Perranporth, Serica brunnea at Gwythian, and Heliopathes gibbus at Bude in 1902, Cicindela campestrit on St. Mary's, Scilly, in April, 1903, Carabus nemoralis about Truro, and Broscus cephalotes at Falmouth in 1904 ; and in many spots one may find a plentiful and varied assortment of beetles. Still the average coleopterid population falls very considerably below that of the sister-county Devon. A number of beetles generally regarded as common or even abundant throughout England are repre- sented in our collections by one or at most a few specimens only. On the other hand, though the scarcity of individual beetles is at times monotonous, the number of species in the county must be considerable, for, though the lists have no pretensions to completeness, about sixteen hundred species have been collected and identified during the past seven years. Many of the species are of course extremely local or of very uncertain appearance, and there seems to be no such thing as finality about any of our local lists, however restricted may be the area of observation. On one particular hedgebank that has been under close attention for the past six years for the purpose of furnishing a biological record, a greater number of beetles not previously recorded therefrom was observed in 1905 than in any other season since the completion of the first year's hedgebank calendar in December, 1900. CICINDELIDAE Cicindela campestris, L. S. 1 - maritima, Dej. Holywell Bay, near Netvjuay CARABIDAE Cychrus rostratus, L. Trebartha, mostly on high ground ; above Liskeard ; Trewince, Gerrans ; Penzance 1 Where beetle! that are common on the mainland have been taken at Scilly, their names are followed by an 'S' on the list. CARABIDAE (continued) Carabus intricatus, L. Under the bark of trees near Cartha- martba ; two taken by the Rev. G. Lupton Allen at sugar, near Millook, in 1905 catenulatus. Scop. nemoralis, Mttll. violaceus, L. var. exasperatus, Duft. N. Cornwall granulatus, L. Apparently scarce ; Truro ; Penzance monilis, F. Caerhayes ; Port- scatho I8 7 CARABIDAE (continue*") Carabus arvensis, F. Perranzabuloe Calosoma sycophanta, L. A single specimen captured running along the pavement at Fowey, June, 1899 Notiophilus biguttatus, F. substriatus, Wat. quadripunctatus, Dej. Saltasb aquaticus, L. S. palustris, Duft. Leistus spinibarbis, F. fulvibarbis, Dej. S. ferrugineus, L. rufescens, F. St. Germans