OOLEOPTERA. 17 



@^OLEOPTERA. 



Abdera triguttata, Gyll. — On September 10th I took one exaiuple 

 of this beetle at Newtonmore, Invernessshire, under the bark of a fallen 

 fir-tree. Fowler says of this species that " It has hitherto only been 

 found in Scotland, in the Dee and ]\foray districts. Mr. Champion 

 took it in some numbers at Aviemore." My identification has been 

 confirmed by the Rev. A. Thornley. — James E. Black. Drecuihrr 28>v/, 

 1902. 



QuEDius obliteratus, Er.,and QuEDius suturalis,Kies. — In answer 

 to my query {antca, vol. xiv., p. 266), re these beetles, Mr. Keys kindly 

 sent forme to see, a specimen of Q. obliteratus, and a foreign type of Q. 

 sutitralia. As I expected, my insect from Gravesend agrees exactly 

 with the latter species, it having much more strongly and coarsely 

 punctured elytra than (J. obliteratus. Mr. Champion tells me that he 

 has two specimens of obliteratus and a series of suturalis, so, as I 

 supposed, we possess both species as British. All the specimens in the 

 Power collection are obliteratus, and Mr. Gorham tells me he only 

 possesses the finer punctured species. I may point out that the 

 description in Fowler refers to the true suturalis, whereas, in Cox's 

 Manual, the suturalis there referred to is obliteratus. — Horace 

 DoNisTHORPE, F.Z.S., 58, Kensington Mansions. November 26th, 1902. 



Apjiodius tessulatus, Payk. — I have long been on the look-out 

 for this insect, as, until this autumn, it was one of the five species of 

 the genus which I had so far been unable to find (the others are 

 nemoralis, scrota, i-maculata and liridus), and, on moving to Edinburgh, 

 I searched the local lists to see if I could find any clue to its localities 

 in Scotland. Dr. Sharp, in his Catalo(iue of the Coleoptera of ScotlamI, 

 says it occurs in the Forth District and is very local, it is not 

 mentioned in the Entomolofiia Edinensis, and Murray, in his catalogue, 

 gives as the only locality Arthur's Seat. Previous captures, such as 

 those by the Rev. T. Wood at Broadstairs, led me to suspect that, like 

 couspurcatus, L., it was a late autumn insect, so, early in November, 

 one mild afternoon, I determined to explore the higher parts of 

 Arthur's Seat, on which there are always plenty of sheep pasturing. 

 I soon came across the insect, which occurred in plenty in sheep 

 droppings, whenever these were in the right condition, not too dry nor 

 too wet. It was accompanied then by A. contaminatus, Herbst, and 

 A. punctatosuleatus, Sturm, both in fair numbers with many of the 

 dung-frequenting Homalotids, Tachinids and Cercyons. I made several 

 visits later in the month and found the insect was widely distributed 

 all over the upper parts of the hill, at heights of 500 feet and over, 

 and I was able to send specimens to friends in need of it. Early in 

 December we had a sharp spell of very cold weather;' there was 

 hard frost, and the hill was covered with snow for several days, the 

 frost lasting long enough to give skaters a brief spell of their sport on 

 the lochs ; when the frost gave way we had several violent gales 

 and heavy rain. I was anxious to see if this weather had put an end 

 to the insects, so, on December 21st, a fairly mild sunny day, I again 

 visited the hill, and was much surprised to find that, though naturally 

 much diminished in numbers, the insect was still present in its 

 pabulum, but, with the exception of three or four specimens of 

 Tachiuus irianjinellus, F., it was the only living thing to be found in the 



