156 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



mentions that he took the species in Donegal in August, 

 and King visited Mull in July. 



Although my experience was gained at the same 

 period of the year as that at which Buchanan White spoke 

 of Mull, I found only one larva and numbers of newly 

 emerged imagines, a fact which suggests that the season 

 was perhaps earlier in 1910 than in 1870; but it also 

 suggests a possible explanation of the difference in the 

 proportionate numbers of the sexes. It suggests that the 

 female is short-lived, perhaps dying after oviposition, while 

 the male survives more than a season, and this seems to be 

 the only possible way of accounting for the difference in my 

 observation from that of others, unless the phenomenon 

 was abnormal. It was only because I collected the newly 

 emerged specimens that I found females more numerous 

 than the males. Had this possibility occurred to me when 

 at Loch Buidhe, I would have noted the number of im- 

 mature specimens among males and females, but now the 

 problem must remain obscure until some one once more 

 hits upon the psychological moment when the new in- 

 dividuals are appearing ! 



Having discussed at some length the habits and habi- 

 tat of D. lapponicus I will only mention a few other species 

 which seem worthy of special note. The Broadford River 

 yielded two interesting species ; Deronectes latus occurred in 

 it, as did also a single specimen of Platanibus inaculatus. 

 With regard to the former species, with the exception of a 

 record for " Moray" (Sharp, "Coleoptera of Scotland," 1871-8) 

 this is the most northern record in the British Islands. 

 The species is a southern one, as is also the genus, which is 

 chiefly Mediterranean, although a few species, such as our 

 D. griseo-striatus, reach the Arctic regions and extend into 

 North America. Of British records, there are only three 

 other Scottish ones -- Clackmannan (Andrew Murray), 

 Stirling (Power), and Berwick (Andrew Murray and T. J. 

 Bold). It has been recorded for most of the northern 

 counties of England, but for none of the Midland counties, but 

 in the south there are records for Glamorgan ; N. Wilts ; 

 Berks ; Sussex E. ; Hants S. ; Dorset ; and Devon N. and S. 



With regard to P. inaculatns the specimen was not the 



