A. W. Rymer Roberts 121 



bridge (Liverpool), A. V. Mitchell (Plymouth), W. E. Sharp (Crow- 

 thorne, Berks.), H. J. Thouless (Norwich), J. B. Walsh (Jarrow-on-Tyne). 

 The data obtained serve to confirm that of Fowler (12), from whose 

 book the following extracts within inverted commas are taken, the re- 

 maining notes being deduced from information supplied by my corre- 

 spondents: 



Agriotes spulator, L. "Common and generally distributed throughout the south 

 and midland districts of England; not so common further north." The line, north 

 of which the species is comparatively scarce, appears to run through Norfolk, 

 Nottingham and Cheshii'e. 



A. obscurus, L. "Generally distributed and common throughout the kingdom." 



A. lineaim, L. "Common and generally distributed throughout the greater part 

 of England, but more local further north." Usually less common than A. obscurus or 

 A. spulafor even in the Midlands and south of England, but locally it is the dominant 

 species, usually in low-lying positions. Such locaUties are the water-meadows along 

 the Cherwell and Isis at Oxford (Walker), the banlis of the river Trent in the Notting- 

 ham district (Carr); the salt marshes of the Solway (Day). In the northern Fen 

 District, Mr J. C. F. Fryer tells me it is equally common with A. obscurus. 



A. sordidus. 111. "Very local and usually rare." 



A. sohrinus, Kies. "Rather local;. . .not recorded from Scotland." This species 

 also appears to be a southern and midland species. It is "by no means common" 

 in Durham (Walsh) and "scarce" in Cumberland (Day), while it is not recorded in 

 Sharp's Coleoplera of Lancashire and Cheshire. 



A. pallidulus. 111. "Generally distributed and common throughout the greater 

 part of the kingdom." 



Athous haemorrhoidalis, F. "Very common and generally distributed throughout 

 the kmgdom." As already mentioned this refers to the adult; the larva is less common 

 than those of the commonest species of Agriotes. 



So far as Scotland is concerned, Dr MacDougall reports that Agriotes 

 ohscunis is the commonest species; he has no record of A. pallidulus. 

 In Ireland A. obscurus and A. lineatus are the only species of Agriotes 

 known to occur, but both are widely distributed. Prof. Carpenter and 

 Mr Halbert believe that A. obscurus is rather the commoner of the two. 



GENT:RAL LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS. 

 The Imago. 



When newly hatched from the pupa, the adult beetles are of a pale 

 straw colour. From this colour they pass through a stage in which they 

 appear of a reddish-brown colour (similar to the var. dnnamomeus, 

 Buys.) and finally, as the chitin becomes hardened, assume the normal 

 coloration of the species. The process of hardening takes some three 

 or four days, during which the beetles remain within the earthen cell. 



Ann. Biol, vi 9 



