Proceedi?igs of Irish Societies 23 



ZOOLOGY. 



INS E C TS 



Coleoptera from Port Ballintrac, Co. Antrim. — Thefollowing 

 notes on Coleoptera are the result of a month's stay at Port Ballintrae, 

 Co. Antrim, during last August, but do not pretend to be the fruits of any- 

 thing more than very intermittent collecting. As a locality, the place 

 struck me as decidedly promising, being fairly rich in variety of wild 

 plants, and having in Bush Bay a good range of sandhills with plenty of 

 vegetation and a river running hard by. What struck me most, in collect- 

 ing the beetles, was the extraordinary abundance of some of the species, 

 due, no doubt, to the favourable summer — e.g., Longitarsus jacobcece, Apion 

 hccmatodes, and Otiorhynchus alroapterus. The first-mentioned was nearly 

 everywhere — their fat little yellow bodies studded the walls of the house 

 we were staying in, lined the window-sills, and they seemed as much at 

 home in one's bedroom as on the Ragwort which sheltered them in scores. 

 A low stone wall in front of the house and facing the sea was, whenever the 

 sun was on it, an excellent hunting-ground alike for this, for Apions, Coc 

 cinellas, and other more occasional visitors. On the whole, however, the 

 number of species was limited and rather disappointing. Mr. Gore Cuth- 

 bert's record of Helops pallid us from.Courtown, in the November number of 

 the Irish Naturalist, has interested me, as I reckon it one of my best cap- 

 tures at Ballintrae. It would be interesting to know whether he got it in 

 a similar habitat. By-the-bye, his experience as to scarcity of species 

 seems to coincide with mine. Below are the species that seem worthy of 

 individual record : one or two of them are probably new to the Irish list, 

 judging from Fowler's lists of localities : — Leistus rtifescens, only a single 

 specimen. I have never found this a plentiful species anywhere ; Dromius 

 mgriventris was not rare amongst the coarse grass on the sandhills, with 

 D. linearis, a very common species ; Badister bipzistulatus, only one of this 

 turned up ; Calathus mollis was extremely common in Bush Bay, but of C. 

 cisteloides I only saw one ; Anchomenusftdiginosus and A?nara ovata, one speci- 

 men of each ; Amara bifrons {livida), a few amongst C. mollis ; Bradycellns 

 harpalinus and B. verbasci, single specimens in a garden. The former is not 

 mentioned by Fowler as Irish, but must surely have been recorded; Cercyon 

 littoralis, common above high-water mark in Bush Bay ; Treckus minuttis, 

 common ; Helophorus rugosas, three specimens on the sandhills near the 

 River Bush ; Olophrumpictum, one at the Causeway in damp ground; Bryaxis 

 fossulata, not uncommon under stones with the last ; Silpha atrata v. sub- 

 rotundata, only one specimen. I have received this variety in numbers 

 from the shores of Strangford Lough ; Saprinus quadristriatus, one specimen 

 of this rare beetle on the sandhills in Bush Bay ; Brachypterus urticce, on 

 nettles. Fowler says •" probably in Ireland " ; Epuroca aestiva and Lathri- 

 dius lardarius, one specimen of each in August ; Corticaria cylindrica, a few 

 of this rare kind occurred with numbers of the common C.fuscuia by shak- 

 ing grass on the sandhills ; Aphodius contaminatus, common at the Giants' 

 Causeway ; ALgialia arenaria, common on the sandhills ; Niptus crenatus, 

 one in a house at Port Ballintrae ; Ceulhorhynchus contractus and C. sulcicollis, 

 not uncommon on Cruciferae ; C. rugulosus, a few on Chamomile by. the 

 .shore ; Apion loti and A. vorax, a few examples ; A. hceniatodes, very common 

 on stone walls by the sea, variable in size ; Hypcra polygoni, two fine ex- 

 amples on the sandhills ; Otiorhynchus atroapterus, very plentiful under low 

 herbage close to the sea ; a single specimen of 0. scabrosus also occurred ; 

 Chrysomela Banksii, probably not at all uncommon, but it wants a good 

 deal of looking for. I got it at the foot of walls, hiding in the_ grass; 

 Longitarsus jacobcece, I have already alluded to the abundance of this insect ; 

 L. hcridus was, of course, plentiful ; Apteropeda graminis, a single specimen 

 at Port Ballintrae ; Psylliodes chrysocephala and Ps. cuprea were very common 

 in a garden at Ballintrae on cabbage which had been allowed to run wild. 

 Of the former species the var. anglica occurred sparingly , formerly con- 



