172 The Irish Na twa list. 



INSECTS COI.I.ECTED AT THE SEAGULL BOG 



TULLAMORE, 



FOR THE ROYAI, IRISH ACADEMY FI^ORA AND FAUNA 

 COMI^IITTEE, MAY, 1 895. 

 BY J. N. HAI^BERT. 



The members of the Dublin Field Club spent a most en- 

 joyable and instructive da^^ on the 25th of last May, when, 

 not in any woy deterred by the warnings given in the pro- 

 gramme about deep and treacherous holes, etc., a large and 

 adventurous part}^ turned out to explore the Seagull Bog, 

 Tullamore. The selection of the time could not have been 

 more fortunate, as the dr}^ weather previous to our visit 

 rendered access easy to many of the most dangerous, though, 

 at the same time, most interesting parts of the bog. The 

 flora of that portion of the Bog of Allen which the Black- 

 headed Gull has chosen for its breeding haunt is decidedly 

 above the average, as may be learned by a perusal of Mr. 

 Praeger's interesting paper in the IHsh Nahcralist for August, 

 1894, and the adjacent, richly varied woods of Clonad and 

 Derryclure mark the locality as about the most likely to repay 

 the incursions of the insect-hunter. To the latter undoubtedly 

 the most pleasing feature is the abundance of birch, hazel, 

 and various willows scattered over, but most common on the 

 outskirts of the bog, and which were proved to harbour the 

 best species. 



As the captures were rather too numerous for inclusion in 

 the usual report, it has been thought advisable to detail them in 

 a separate list. I cannot find any previous Irish record^ for the 

 following species : — Polydrus2ts tcrdicollis, De G., P . ccrvinus, 

 L, and Hylastcs palliaiiis, Gj^lL, while a fourth species, E later 

 pomoriLin, Herbst., has only once before been recorded from a 

 specimen taken by the Rev. W. F. Johnson in a somewhat 

 similar locality near Armagh. As one would expect, the most 

 notable feature in the bog collecting is the abundance of the 

 various species, for, with the exception of the insect mentioned, 

 and with a little more available time, large numbers of the 

 others could have been obtained. Several of the universally 

 common kinds have been omitted from the list, 



