MIGRATION AND DISPERSAL OF INSECTS. H 



supposed food-plant, Tanatrtuui nibjarc (Fowler, L'ol. llrit. hlds., iv., 

 p. 881) is unknown in the neighbourhood, and, secondly, from its having 

 previously only been recorded once from the district, i\Ir. Archer 

 having- taken a specimen at Wallasey many years before. Systematic 

 search through that and succeeding autumns failed to produce another 

 example, until, in September, 1899, whilst strolling along the Deeside 

 dunes after one of the heavy w^esterly gales to -which the Hoylake 

 district is so prone, I was fortunate enough to pick up two more insects 

 on the face of the bare exposed sandhills Avhich rise from the shore. 

 It will be recollected that this was one of the beetles met with in such 

 numbers in Llyn du'r Arddu (Snowdon) by jMr. Brockton Tomlin and 

 myself in August, 1900, and referred to by Mr. Tutt (p. 95) ; and from 

 the fact of its occurring on other of the Welsh hills more adjacent to 

 the Dee estuary I have no doubt in my own mind that both Mr. 

 Archer's and my captures were wind-, or wind-and- water-borne im- 

 migrants from the adjoining principality. With regard to the food of 

 this species, I may add that my wife discovered it on wild thyme on 

 Snowdon, a plant on which we subsequently found it to feed readily. 



To the many instances of iinexplained voluntary flight enumerated 

 by Mr. Tutt amongst the lepidoptera, etc., I can add that of the 

 characteristic sandhill coleopteron, Anoinara frMni, F. Towards the 

 end of July, 1897, this chafer was fairly abundant locally for a week 

 or ten days on the dunes above the submerged forest at Meols, and my 

 Avife and I daily visited the spot Avith the object of solving the mystery 

 of their oliserved movements. The beetles commenced to appear from 

 the sand and roots of starr-grass about ten a.m., reaching the culmi- 

 nating point of abundance each day between twelve and one o'clock. 

 But the perplexing circumstance was that, within a short time from 

 its appearance, each insect rose in the air and deliberately set ott' in a 

 W.N.W. direction, over the dunes and out to sea. All the insects 

 followed the same general direction, and chafers that were observed to 

 fly towards an opposite quarter might have almost been counted on 

 one's lingers. Whence Avent these Avould-be mariners, and for Avhat 

 purpose, since food was presumably abundant around them ? In the 

 first Aveek of August, 1899, this beautiful chafer suddenly appeared in 

 sAvarms, flying about an expanse of sandhills in Hoylake, now, alas ! 

 acquired by the speculative builder. The phenomenon lasted for two 

 days, and, in a less degree, over the third, Avhen so numerous Avere 

 the insects that I several times caught three in my hand at a time. 

 This abnormal abundance can, hoAvever, be in no Avay regarded as 

 migratory, since I belicA-e, as stated by Sharp (p. 94), in referring to 

 the SAvarming of I'/n/lloiiertha hoiticola, Kirby, on the shores of Cardi- 

 gan Bay, that every individual Avas bred on the spot, and that their 

 phenomenal number Avould be due to a sequence of favourable circum- 

 stances "extending over," as he says, "perhaps more than one 

 season." 



In concluding a somewhat rambling note, that has already far 

 exceeded the limits intended, I should like to suggest that, in addition 

 to the excellent local work in Avhich they are now mostly engaged, 

 Entomological and Natural History Societies throughout the kingdom 

 should combine to obtain material for the study of such important 

 questions as those which Mr. Tutt has so pertinently placed before us — 

 enigmas, Avhich, like those of Aveather effect on insect life, the occa- 



