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COLBOPTERA AT BOAT OP GARTEN, STRATHSPEY, 

 INVERNESS-SHIRE. 



BY PROF. T. HUDSON BEARE, B.Sc, F.R.S.E. 



I stayed in this locality for three weeks in August, from 5th to 

 25th, and did a good deal of collecting. Owing, however, to the long 

 dry summer this part of Scotland had experienced, and the intense 

 heat, beetles were very scarce, and it was hard work to find anything 

 at all. The Spey was very low, and the Lochs much below their normal 

 level, while all the moss, except in the boggiest spots, was quite dried 

 up. Herbage was parched, with the result that there were numerous 

 heath and forest fires, one around Loch an Elian doing much damage. 



1 worked the shingle beds in the river, and the shores of Lochs 

 Garten and Vaa, but chiefly the pine forests lying between the river 

 and Loch Grarten. 



The following are my most interesting captures, with a few notes 

 on their habitats : — 



Of Oeodephaga, I picked up three Carahus glahratus, Payk., none of them at 

 levels above 1000 ft. ; C. catenulatus, Scop., was very common in rotten boughs 

 and under them, while one C. violaceus, L., was noticed taking an evening ramble 

 along one of the roads ; on the same road at the same hour of the day three Cychrus 

 rostratus, L., were found. 



Nebria Gyllenhali, Sch., was common near the water side, and I found speci- 

 mens only a few feet below the cairn on the Cairngorm, or 4000 ft. up, these had 

 reddish elytra, and did not look immature ; at the same level one Patrobus septen- 

 trionis, Dej., turned up ; P. assimilis, Chaud., being common around the Loch shores. 

 The fierce heat and drought had made the mountain sides and tops quite useless for 

 collecting ; I had, however, several fine climbs in the Cairngorms and their passes, 

 the only drawback to one's pleasure was the intolerable plague of flies, they followed 

 me in thousands right up to the summits. 



In the forests Calathus micropterus, Duft., was common, and C. piceus, Marsh., 

 scarce, while Pterostichus oblongo-punctatus, F., and P. vitreus, Dej., turned up by 

 odd specimens ; in the shingle, Loricera pilicornis, P., Bembidium tibiale, Duft., 

 punctulatum, Drap., gi,r\d. pros inum, Duft , were fairly abundant. 



I did not work for Hydradephaga, and the only specimen taken was Agahus 

 guttatus, Payk., caught in my hand in a tiny stream fed from a spring about 

 3600 ft. up Cairngorm. 



StaphylinidfB were mostly found under bark of rotten boughs and stumps. 

 Quedius lateralis, Grrav., common ; Quedlonicchus Icevigatus, Gyll., fairly common 

 under bark, but difficult to secure, owing to the speed with which it runs and drops 

 into the moss around. Leptusa aiialis, Gyll., occurred with Q. IcBvigatus, and also 

 Megacronus analls, P. ; and in moss Tachinus riifipcs, L., Philonthus laminatus, 

 Crcutz, &c. Two specimens of Staphylinus stercorarius, 01., were found running 



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