1899.] 218 



Phytosus nigriventris near Hoylake. — Seeing it stated in the current number of 

 the " Entomologist's Record " that Mablethorpe, The Chesil Beach and " Flint- 

 shire " are the only British localities at present known for Phytosus nigriventris, it 

 might perhaps be worth mentioning that this species was not uncommon near 

 Hoylake this season. It occurred to Mr. Brockton Tomlin (who first happened upon 

 it) and myself whilst collecting together one day in that neighbourhood, and I 

 subsequently found it on several other occasions. My own experience was that of 

 the two forms {balticus and nigriventris) the latter was the more frequently met 

 with, fully 80 per cent, of the Phytosi noted being referable to that species. 



What, from M. Fauvel's description {vide Canon Fowler's Coleoptera of the 

 British Islands, vol. ii, p. 169), I took to be the larvae of this beetle, I found on one 

 or two occasions burrowing in the sand an inch or so beneath the food from wliich 

 the perfect insects liad been taken. — E. J. BuRaESS Sopp, Snowdon View, Upper 

 Bangor : August, 1899. 



Coleoptera in the Lake District. — In the early part of June I had a fortnight's 

 collecting in the neighbourhood of UUswater. Beetles were not very plentiful, but 

 I met with a few species wliich seem worthy of notice. 



Carabus was represented almost exclusively by C. catenulatus, wliich abounded 

 on all the Fells and at all altitudes. Of C. arvensis I only obtained a single speci- 

 men in a little hollow just below the summit of Helvellyn. Pterosfichus vitreus 

 turned up occasionally under stones on high ground, together with Patrohus assimilis. 

 I also obtained three specimens of Otiorrhynchus maurus, two on Helvellyn and one 

 on Place Fell. Corymbites cupreus was very common, both under stones and flying 

 in the hot sunshine, but, with two exceptions, every specimen belonged to the 

 variety ceruginosus. 



Melandrya caraboides literally abounded in every decaying stump, together 

 with Campyhis linearis ; the female of this latter insect is a most deceptive creature, 

 and when I first turned it out (from pine, not birch) I quite thought that I had got 

 something really good. With these were quantities of that strange Dipteron, 

 Ctenophora pectinicornis , which both in appearance and habits is so singularly 

 suggestive of a huge ichneumon. 



Hawthorn blossom on the sides of the Fells produced Anthobium sorbi in some 

 numbers, together with Telephorus alpinus (2), T. abdominalis (2), T. fignratus (4), 

 and the very local T. obscurns (2) ; but I got quite a number of the last named 

 species from the blossoms of one particular sycamore in the Grisedale Valley. Al- 

 together no less than thirteen species of this genus put in an appearance. 



Beating hawthorn after sunset produced a solitary example of Melolontha 

 hippocastani, an old habitue of the district. I tried hard to obtain more, but without 

 success. Phyllopertha horticola was more abundant than I have ever seen it. One 

 day I took three specimens ; the next I might have taken as many hundred thousand, 

 and that in a single field. 



Other notabilia were Gnypeta cterulea, one from wet moss ; Tachinus elongatus, 

 one on the wing ; Staphylinus erythropterus, one sitting on a boulder and another 

 sprawling on its back in the road ; and Meloe violaceus, three on the wooded slope 

 overlooking Brothers' Water. — Theodore Wood, 157, Trinity Road, U])per Tooting, 

 S.W. : July 28th, 1899. 



