The Colcopterist in hrlaJLcl. i6i 



in capturiiio- a great number of McLigethes csneus. On a 

 dandelion-flower, however, we notice a speck, a touch as of 

 an emerald, this is that beautiful little beetle, Doiichosoma 

 7iobilis, recently recorded from the Wicklow coast. 



A few common Telephori and Rhynchophora complete our 

 capture here, and we are soon crossing the town of Rush, to- 

 wards a sandy tract, which we can descry beyond. A long, 

 bare street, disproportionately wide ; rows of low, whitewashed, 

 thatched cottages, gardenless and naked. Against the walls 

 lean nets, and the apparatus of the fishers' craft. The masts 

 and spars of a few boats cut the sk}^ at the end of the street, 

 and beyond, the crisp blue sea, and the gentle cliffs and slopes 

 of lyambay. Such was Rush. Beyond the town the coast 

 bends round, and the point runs out in sandhills of no great 

 size or elevation. We approached this ground with some ex- 

 pectancy, as we were somewhat intimate with other sandhills, 

 which fringe the Cheshire sea-coast ; and it would be, we 

 thought, interesting to observe how far the inhabitants of 

 these similar localities differed or agreed. 



Unfortunately, just about this time, clouds, which had been 

 gathering all the morning, drew together, and not only ob- 

 scured the sun, but descended in a copious shower. Now, for 

 collecting among sandhills of all places, bright sunshine, and 

 absence of all wind, are essential elements of success. Hence, 

 in the teeth of this blustering squall of wind and rain, we 

 could not expect many captures, and, no doubt, the record of 

 their coleopterous denizens is consequently very incomplete. 



The most abundant beetle there seemed to be Otiorrhyjichus 

 atroapterus. There were also a few specimens of O. stilcafus, 

 both crawling on the bare sand, and we also took one Lioso- 

 mus ovatuhis. 



The Cheshire sandhills, to which we have referred, swarm 

 on occasions with three species of Hypera, H. nigrirostris, H. 

 pla7itagi7tis, and H. variabilis ; also with Cneorhinus genmiatus, 

 and Sito7ies griseus. There is also to be taken there, more or 

 less commonl}?", Grypidius cquiseti, Saprimts quadristriahcs^ 

 and Sceneus, Anisotonia dubia, Notoxus monoceros, and very pro- 

 fusely, Heliopathes gibbus, and Microzoum tibiale ; a singularly 

 large number of species of Aphodii have been taken there, and 

 the Geodephaga are represented more especially by Calathus 

 mollis. All of which insects are almost entirely limited in that 

 district to the sandhill zone. Now, of these species, the only 



