246 The Irish Naturalist. December, 



Beetles, on the whole, were decidedly scarce, but the weather 

 was not quite propitious for their appearance, and there was 

 very little of the matted drift and debris, which usually in 

 such places harbours so many species. By shaking out the 

 little that there was, the following species were taken : — 

 single specimens of Pelophila bo7'calis, Payk., and Silpha 

 dispar, Herbst. ; Homalota hyorotop07'ay Kr., and H. volants, 

 Scrib. in abundance, and more or less commonly Homalota 

 greoa7'ia^ Er., Philo7ithus micaiis, Grav., Sfe7ius ater^ Mam., 

 Ste7i7is ca7ialic7ilat7is, Gyll., Ste7ius tarsalis, Ljn., Ste7i7is 

 77icla7iop7is, Marsh., Trogophce7is bili7iiat7is, Steph., Hyd7'oe7ia 

 riparia, Kug, and Cercyo7i aq7iaticiis, Muls. 



Much more productive was a day of warm sunshine spent 

 shortly afterwards at Portmarnock, on the coast near Dublin. 

 Here that so far exclusivel}^ Irish beetle (in the British Isles) 

 Otiorrhy7ich7is a7i7Vp7mctattis, Gyll., was soon discovered by 

 sweeping a low grassy bank between the station and the 

 shore, and bj^ carefully discriminative beating and brushing 

 the various plants which composed its vegetation, the beetle 

 was localized on Ca7'du7is a7've7isis, which occurred in fine 

 clumps here ^nd there. From these tliistles O. a7iropu7iciat7is 

 was beaten in abundance, and from the fact that very man}^ of 

 the specimens so obtained were quite immature and that these 

 particular thistles had suffered very severely from the ravages 

 of some insect, it seems a fair inference that C arue7isis forms 

 the food plant, or at any rate a food plant, of the species in 

 Ireland. Some tangles of sodden ha}^ on the shore of one of 

 the muddy creeks which run up from the sea were very full of 

 common beetles — most of them hardly worth enumeration ; 

 but it may be worth while to record Silpha tristis, 111., Choleva 

 7iigrita Er., Philo7ith7iS albipes, Grav., Ho77ialota I7i7'idipe7i7iis, 

 Maun., and Laccobius altitaceus, Thoms. 



In heaps of cut herbage on the drier land Ch7ysomela 

 Ba7iksiiy F., was quite frequent, and it was interesting to find 

 here a few specimens of Metabletus t?'U7icaiell7is, ly., a beetle 

 which in England appears to be confined to the south and 

 east, and usually attached to the Chalk. 



To those who remember the wild weather of the boreal 

 April of 1910, it will not be surprising that a visit of a couple 

 of days to I^ough Leane, in Kerry, at that season should have 

 proved, from the coleopterist's point of view, little short of a 



