ZOOLOGY, 



NOTES ON THE HABITS OP DYTISCUS LAPP 



GYLL. 



By F. BUCHANAN WHITE, M.D. F.L.S. 



r\YTISCUS LAPPONICUS, one of the large carnivor- 

 *-^ ous water-beetles, is a species which, from its very local 

 distribution in Britain, has been seen in a living state by, I 

 suppose, but few entomologists in this country. A few notes, 

 imperfect though they be, on its habits, may not therefore be 



uninteresting. 



This beetle was first detected as a British species by the late 

 Rev. Hamlet Clarke, who, about the year 1854, captured four 

 specimens in a small but very deep lake in the Island of Mull, 

 which were duly recorded in the 'Zoologist.' The next record 

 that I find, though the insect had probably been captured in the 

 interval, is in 1868, when the Rev. J. E. Somerville, now of 

 Broughty Ferry, mentions, in the ' Entomologist's Monthly 

 Magazine,' the capture in the Island of Mull in 1866 of no 

 less than forty-five specimens. In the following year the same 

 gentleman discovered Dytiscus lapponicus in Donegal in Ireland, 

 where it appears to be, as usual, very local but not rare. About 

 this time, also, Dr Sharp discovered a new Scottish locality, hav- 

 ing taken one specimen during an entomological exploration of 

 Strathglass. In addition to these localities, Mr Somerville in- 

 forms me that he has met with the beetle in an island near 

 Mull, which concludes the list of places in which, so far as I am 

 aware, this species has been met with in the British Isles. 



Thanks to information kindly given me by Mr Somerville, I 

 was enabled, during a recent visit to the Island of Mull, to re- 

 new acquaintance with Dytiscus lapponicus, whom I first saw " at 

 home " in Dr Sharp's locality in Strathglass. In both localities 

 the lochs in which the beetle is found are somewhat similar in 



vol. VI. k 



