1905.] 257 



Occurrence of Amara anthohia, Villa, on the Lancashire coast. — On May 19th 

 I captured several specimens of Amara at Freshfield, near Birkdale. On comparing 

 them with examples of A. anthobia, Villa, which had been very kindly sent me 

 by the Rev. G. A. Crawshay from Leighton Buzzard, I found that one of mine, a 

 male, exactly corresponded with his insect, and this determination has been con- 

 firmed by him. The insect, therefore, is not confined to the hitherto recorded 

 southern localities.— J. Kidson Taylor, 35, South Avenue, Buxton : September 

 2\st, 1905. 



Harpalus honestus, Duft., at Streatley, Berlis.— On an afternoon in the middle 

 of August I visited a favourite old spot of mine, the chalk hills of Streatley, near 

 Beading. The conditions being good for the purpose, I turned over many stones on 

 the hillside in search of Harpalus caspius, which proved, however, not to be about. 

 Licinus silphoides was there in the greatest abundance, and Bracldnus crepitans of 

 course " fired off " on the lifting of almost every stone. I picked up Amara patricia 

 and A. rufocincta, but, most noteworthy, also specimens of Harpalus honestus, 'Dnh., 

 both sexes, the male of a very bright metallic green colour, the female of a silky green, 

 in fact, it is the most vividly brilliant beetle which we have in the genus. Fowler 

 speaks of it in " British Coleoptera " (vol. i, p. 53) as a continental form only. 

 The beetle looks so very difPerent from the ordinary coal-black ignavus that it has 

 been perhaps passed ovei' as the common Harpalus rubripes or mneiis. Possibly it 

 may turn out to be the only form occurring on the chalk. 



Harpalus caspius I got a week or so later, just emerging and soft, on the 

 hills a few miles distant from this.— W. Holland, University Museum, Oxford : 

 October, 1905. 



Apian astragali, Payk., af Oxford. — At Oxford Apion astragali has occurred in 

 fair numbers, in September, on Astragalus glycyphyllus, and the great abundance of 

 A. sanguineiun here in the late autumn is worth noting. I took over seventy speci- 

 mens in a limited space the last time I was in the field, in the belief that some one 

 would want what is usually looked upon as so rare a species. — Id. 



A note on the Coleopterous genus Anisotoma, Illiger.— The economy of the 

 members of the genus Anisotoma and its allies is so hidden in mystery, any fact 

 that seems to give a glimpse into their life-history is worth recording. The best 

 known method of capturing them is by evening sweeping, especially in the autumn, 

 but large numbers of specimens have been sometimes taken in flood-rubbish. 

 A. cinnamomea, Panz., is known to inhabit tlie trufile, an underground fungus, 

 and I believe A. badia, Sturm, is sometimes found in plenty in moss. I 

 have taken a pair of A. punctulata, Gyll , during February, out of the same 

 tuft of grass away from any chance of flood. While digging up small holes in 

 the sand last August at Braunton Burrows, North Devon, I found at the bottom 

 of four of them three specimens of A. ciliaris, Schmidt, and one A. calcarata, Er. 

 In holes, exactly similar and close by, I took Bledius pallipes, Gr., Dyschirius 

 impunctipennis. Daws., and Bembidium pallidipenne, 111. Since then, when 



