1904.] 137 



Request for notes — published or unpublished — of records of Coleoptera in the 

 Isle of Man. — I am at present engaged in the collection of material for the preparation 

 of a Coleopterous fauna of the Isle of Man, which I hope to have ready for publi- 

 cation in the course of some months. With a view to making it as complete as 

 possible, I should be very glad if any " Colcopterists " who have collected at any 

 time in the island would favour me with records of their captures. References to 

 any mention of Manx beetles in entomological literature — especially periodicals — 

 would also be welcomed, in addition to the following somewhat scant bibliography 

 which I have notes of already. 



No doubt the fii'st naturalist to visit the Isle of Man was John Ray, but his 

 researches wore chiefly botanical : he described the yellow-horned poppy from plants 

 found by him near Ramsey. I am notable to refer to Ray's " Historia Insectorum" 

 (1710) in order to see whether any mention of Manx beetles is made therein. 



In Stephens' " Manual of British Coleoptera " (ISIiO) the only species recorded 

 as Manx are Carabus granulatus, L., and Harpalus ruficeps, Oeskay. To what 

 species does the latter refer ?* I cannot ascertain from whom these records were 

 received. It is just possible that the Rev. J. S. Henslow may have done some col- 

 lecting during his stay in the island in 1819 when he was studying its geology. 



Edward Forbes collected natural history specimens during his boyhood in the 

 Isle of Man and afterwards when spending his student vacations. He proposed to 

 write a work on the entire Natural History of the Isle of Man, but only partially 

 carried this out, publishing a small volume on Manx molluscs in 1838, and con- 

 tributing notes on the Flora for Cumraings' "Isle of Man" (1848). He supplied 

 to the later editions of " Q,uiggin's Gruide " a chapter on the Natural History, the 

 only reference to the entomology being as follows : — " The entomology of the island 

 is not attractive, though a few of the rarer Coleoptera may be found on the sandy 

 district of the north." Every Coleopterist owes a debt of gratitude to Edward 

 Forbes, for he was one of the pioneers of the study of the geographical distribution 

 of plants and animals, and in his paper " On the Connexion between the Existing 

 Fauna and Flora of the British Isles, and the geological changes which have affected 

 their area" (1846), he enunciates his theory of specific centres of distribution, 

 discusses former land connections, and deals with the Asturian element in the 

 British and more especially in the Irish fauna and flora. 



The Rev. Hamlet Clark records a black variety of Hydroporus 12-pustulatus 

 from the Isle of Man (Zoologist, 1855, p. 4858). 



The Rev. H. A. Stowell, wiien Chaplain of Christ Church, Maughold, collected 

 beetles for two or three years, and contributed a paper on the Manx Coleoptera to 

 the Zoologist, 1862, p. 7895 : ho. mentions tiiat he captured 406 species, chiefly in 

 the neighbourhood of Maughold, but unfortunately only enumerated 82 of them by 

 name. The same writer contributed a chapter on the Coleoptera to Thwaite's 

 " Directory of the Isle of Man " (1863), in which a few additional species are named, 

 bring the total up to 100 : the number of his captures are now given as 504. I 

 should be glad of any information as to what has become of this collection. 



E. C. Rye contributed a " Note on possible effects of isolation " to the Ent. 

 Mo. Mag., March, 1873, p. 213, with reference to a few Manx beetles sent to him 

 for naming by Mr. Joseph Chappell. In this note Mr. Rye mentions a previous 



* The //. ruAeeps of Curtis and Stephens was probably H. latut, L., var. erythrocephaUi, F. — G. C. C. 



M 



