[ i89 ] 

 SOME BEETLES FROM THE DUBLIN DISTRICT. 



BY J. M. BROWNE, B.A. 

 (Read before the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, gtli Feb., 1892.) 



Dubinin boasts a record of between six and seven hundred 

 species of coleopterous insects out of a total of over three 

 thousand two hundred British species, so that we have ground 

 for hope that not nearly the full number has been placed 

 upon our list. As regards entomolog}^, our district has a 

 number of circumstances in its favour which do not belong to 

 all hunting-grounds. To begin with, it has a considerable 

 stretch of coast, giving opportunities for the capture of mari- 

 time insects, many of which never venture any distance inland. 

 Besides this very solid advantage, our district has a varied 

 surface area of mountain, hill, and plain, and in the Wicklow 

 portion we have lake country. During the past three or four 

 years a number of beetles have come under my notice, which 

 have hitherto been unrecorded for Dublin, and in one or two 

 instances for Ireland perhaps, the said instances being 

 attended with considerable interest. Before taking up these 

 insects, however, I would like to glance at the family of beetles 

 which stands at the head of the coleoptera — the CiciiidelidcB or 

 Tiger-beetles as they are commonly called. This most mag- 

 nificent division is characterised by the beauty of colouring of 

 its species, which flash with the most exquisite tints, blended 

 with a harmony only equalled by their richness, by the swift- 

 ness of movement either on the wing or on the earth, and by 

 the ferocity and carnivorous habits of its members, all which 

 characters have gained for them the name of Tiger-beetles. 

 The typical genus, Cicindcla, which comprises several hundreds 

 of species, is the largest of any in the family, and its members 

 are very numerous in the hottest parts of the globe, but 

 decrease rapidly in number as we travel from the equator. 

 Four species are inhabitants of England, whilst we in Ireland 

 have but one, the Green Sparkler Beetle, Cicindcla cainpcstris, 

 which is found in sandy places near the Dublin coast. As the 

 CicindclidcB love the warmth and dryness of tropical climes, so 

 much do they detest the farmer, and fly before the advance of 

 cultivators of the soil. The strength of our species — like that 

 of its relatives — is very great, and I have held a specimen in 

 mid-air by its body whilst it held in its jaws a glove many 

 times its own weight. 



The family of the Carabidcs comes next in order of precedence 

 to the "Tigers," and is a large and brilliant group, almost all 

 its members being carnivorous, and living upon snails, spiders, 

 and smaller insects. Up till last year a widely-spread species 

 of this family had no place upon our list, and it was remark- 

 able that so important an insect should have been unrecorded 



