150 [J^iy- 



of the New Zealand Carabidce ; it is a handsome flattened pitchj^- 

 black 8carites-\\\e beetle, nearly an inch in length, with remarkably 

 stout fossorial legs. 



On the 19th the Buller Eiver was in high flood after the rain, 

 running down at the rate of more than ten miles an hour, and 

 carrying great quantities of drift timber, large and small, out to sea. 

 The next day was fine, and when 1 went down to the beach I found it 

 literally teeming with beetle life, under the driftwood and other debris 

 thrown up by the tide on the clean sand. As many as ten or a dozen 

 species of Coleoptera were sometimes found under a single small piece 

 of wood, and three hours' work gave me no fewer than 105 species, a 

 number unprecedented, I should say, in a day's collecting in New 

 Zealand. These, when sorted out, were distributed as follows : Cara- 

 bidce 20, Dytiscidce 1, HydrophiUdce 4, Staphylinidce 11, PselapliidcB 2, 

 Clavicorns 13, Lucanidce 2, Lamellicorns 10, Elateridce 10, Malaco- 

 dermata 6, Heieromera 12, BhynchopJiora 10, and Phytophaga 4 species. 

 A large proportion of these had probably been brought down for a 

 distance of many miles by the flooded Buller River and its tribu- 

 taries, and small river-bank and shingle-frequenting Staphylinidcd and 

 Carabidce (Anchomeiius, Actenonyx, Oopteriis, Bembidium, &c.) with 

 three or four Elateridce, were individually the most numerous. But 

 larger forms were by no means absent, and I took, for the first time, 

 Amarotypus edwardsi, Sharp, the very elegant Demetrida lineella. 

 White, three species of Mecodema, including a single example of the 

 rare 31. diicale, Sharp, an apparently new Zolus, Saphobius setosus, 

 Sharp, and two very nice Heteromerous forms, Mesopatrum granu- 

 losum, Br., and Cerodolus chrysomeloides, Sharp. Two hours' work 

 next morning on the same ground gave me 80 species of beetles, and 

 these figures will, I think, go far to show that New Zealand is not as 

 poor a region for the Coleopterist as has sometimes been stated. 



I started on my second trip to Westport from Port Chalmers on 

 December 23rd, and arrived at Springfield, 45 miles inland from 

 Christchurch, on the following day. So far my route had traversed 

 the famous " Canterbury Plains " which extend for many miles, as an 

 apparently dead level expanse of pasture and arable laud, broken at 

 intervals by the wide shingly beds of the rivers, and by long belts of 

 the Pinus insiynis and Eucalyptus globulus, which are planted to 

 break the prevailing high winds. These Plains slope upwards almost 

 imperceptibly from the sea to a height of 1200 feet at Springfield, 

 where they merge into the central mountain-range of the Island. Up 

 to about 3000 feet, the hills are for the most part covered with a 



