1900.] 95 



particularly in tlie Order Lepido2Jtera, have of late years either dis- 

 appeared entirely, or exist in sadly diminished numbers. The cause 

 of this disappearance is not far to seek. Summer camping-out 

 stations, and the modern craze for the " Royal and Ancient Game of 

 Golf," which has absorbed so many of our open spaces and ruined 

 them from an Entomological point of view, have exerted their malignant 

 influence to a greater degree at Deal than almost anywhere else, and 

 those who knew the sandhills some five and twenty years ago must 

 lament the destruction of many of the choicest spots for insects. The 

 whole of the central portion of the sandhills being occupied by golf- 

 courses nearly as far as Sandwich, the available ground is now reduced 

 to a narrow strip just inside the shingle beach, and another adjoining 

 the footpath leading past the " Chequers Inn " towards the last 

 mentioned town. It is thus a mere fraction of what it was in the 

 days before the invasion of golf, but partly to make up for this, 

 insects, and especially beetles, seem to a large extent to have become 

 concentrated upon the undisturbed ground, and are thus in some cases 

 more readily obtainable, but on the other hand it is quite possible 

 that many of the rarities will never occur again. 



The majority of the Coleoptera hereafter mentioned have been 

 taken or noticed by the present writer in about two visits annually of 

 a day each since 1893, and those which are most characteristic, either 

 of Deal or of the south-east coast of England generally, are indicated 

 by an asterisk Perhaps the most productive method of collecting 

 (so far as the number of specimens is concerned) is by searching at 

 the roots of the dwarf sallows and the " Marram " grass {Ammophila 

 arundinacea), as well as by rolling back the moss on the sandhills, and 

 turning over small stones, which latter are now not too numerous, 

 except close to the shingle. In this way many interesting Carahidce 

 will be found, notably of the genera Harpalus and Amara, H. anxius 

 and A. tibialis usually occurring by hundreds, and Harpalus attenuatus, 

 tardus, serripes, Amara fulva, ovata, lucida, and pleheia^ being almost 

 always to be found more or less commonly. Of the rarer species of 

 these genera, H. cordatus* melancholicics, and sabulicola may be looked 

 for ; the first-mentioned, indeed, was long known only from this 

 locality, though it has recently been taken freely at Camber, Sussex, 

 where H. servus,'^' usually to be found at Deal in some numbers, has 

 also been met with. Amara curta* and spreta* both very local species, 

 have their head-quarters here, and A. rufocincta and patricia have also 

 occurred. Calathus fiiscus, mollis, and Jiavipes, Taphria nivalis, and 

 the pretty little Deinetrias unipunctatus, are found by the methods 



