The Weevils of Soiitk Loiitk. 159 



crops and trees. The Scoly tides, however, like other wood- 

 boring beetles, are rather scarce in Ireland, a thinly-wooded 

 country. 



The portion of County lyouth where I collected has little 

 diversity of surface, such hills as there are being of trifling 

 elevation. Between the Boyne estuary and Clogher Head, 

 for about four miles, there is a velvet strand, bounded by a 

 broad strip of sand-hills and rabbit warrens. This coast line 

 is only broken by one stream, the Newtown brook, abound- 

 ing in some parts with trout, but much obstructed by sedge. 

 There is not much plantation, except in detached portions, 

 beech, poplar, ash, and fir being the principal trees. The 

 general absence of hills renders the landscape, on the whole, 

 tame and unpicturesque ; but from Clogher Head or its neigh- 

 bourhood, on a clear day, one may catch some fine views of 

 the Carlingford and Mourne Mountains on the north, and 

 occasionally of the Dublin and Wicklow Hills to the south. 

 But a collecting entomologist has little concern with purely 

 aesthetic feelings, however much they may appeal to him at 

 other times. The best ground for entomological work in this 

 region I found to be the sandy warrens already mentioned, 

 and the wooded headlands adjoining. The great profusion ojf 

 insects here, considering the wet season, was somewhat re- 

 markable. lyCpidoptera, of course, were well represented, and 

 a collector of that order might have reaped a rich harvest, but 

 Coleoptera were equally abundant, particularly the geodepha- 

 gous and phytophagous groups. In that I am dealing with, 

 more than half of my captures from this county were taken on 

 these sandy wastes, and I do not doubt many additional species 

 would have been met with in the earlier summer months. By 

 beating beeches and alders in Newtown and Blackball woods, 

 I obtained a fair number of Otiorrhynchus maicr^us, generally 

 accounted a local and northern species. The ground colour 

 of every specimen of this beetle I have seen is not ''black," 

 as given by Canon Fowler, but very dark brown. O. atro- 

 apterus was fairly common near the sea, crawling over sandy 

 patches. Here, too, I came upon three examples of Stropho- 

 soinus retusus at roots of Anthyllis, and a single Trachyphl(^iis 

 scabricidus. In the fox-cover at Newlown I took a couple of 

 Otiorrhyncluis scabrosus and of O.^rugifrons, the former in moss, 

 and the latter under stones, near the margin of a small pool. 

 I got a small series of O. ligneus in the plantations at Black- 

 hall. The common O. picipes and O. stdcatus were often met 

 with, the first on the trees and bushes everywhere, and the 

 second in moss under hedgerows. The season was rather late 

 for the Phyllobiina, and only a few worn specimens of P. 

 viridiceris occurred. About the middle of the month a day's 

 sweeping of the brambles, furze, and grasses of Castlecoo 

 gave me a fairly good variety, though not a great number of 

 specimens. This hill (346 feet), is one of the few elevations 



