THE COLEOPTERIST IN TIREE. 



19 



The Coleopterist in Tiree. 



By W. E. SHARP, F.E.S. 



" And far away I dreamed of se^is 

 That swept in mists of green and grey, 

 Around that rock-bound Isle." 



That there are Coleopterists and Collectors of Coleoptera, and that 

 these names, although the former may and usually does include the 

 latter, are by no means synonymic, the judicious student of human 

 nature has without doubt observed. 



It is not my purpose here to dwell, as perhaps I might, and that 

 at some length, on the characters which distinguish or divide these 

 sub-varieties of that polymorphic species Homo sapiens, but I may 

 perhaps allude to one divergence and point out that your mere 

 collector, being ever more anxious to have than to know, prefers for 

 his collecting those beaten paths which the labours and the experience 

 of many have made classic, and where although he may be unable by 

 one single new record to add to the sum of our knowledge of his chosen 

 order, yet finds a sufficient compensation in diminishing the blank 

 spaces in his cabinet drawers, while his more adventurous or more 

 curious brother, disdainful of such well worn ground, is impelled by a 

 desire to know, if only the barrenness of the land, to explore more 

 virgin fields — which indeed form by far the larger part of these Islands 

 — and although he may bring home no specimen worth the setting, 

 at least may discover something of the range of species and contribute 

 in some small way to an elucidation of the fascinating problems of 

 faunistie distribution. 



It was with some such thoughts as these in my mind, that I 

 studied a list of Coleoptera recently taken by Mr. Donisthorpe in 

 the Island of Tiree, which he has been good enough to allow me to 

 examine. Here are none of those familiar rarities, the chance of 

 whose triumphant capture the forests of Hampshire, the sandhills of 

 Kent, or the fens of Cambridgeshire afford ; of that remote island 

 facing the Atlantic, far from our common haunts and inglorious 

 expeditions, certainly no Coleopterist has left any records — if any have 

 ever visited it. For Tiree to the ordinary "man in the street" is 

 rather less known and practically as far off as is Tristan d'Acunha, 

 and it was with no small curiosity that I examined this the first list 

 of any of its beetles. Tiree is the last and most south-westerly of 

 those scattered islands which compose the Inner Hebrides. Constructed 

 of that metamorphic mica-schistose rock which forms the greater part 

 of the Highlands of Scotland, its surface rises into no great elevations, 

 and presents no unusual features — a shore of sandy beaches and low 

 cliffs, and an interior of windswept heathery moors and desolate peat 

 bogs, a heavy rainfall, and a remarkably equable annual temperature. 



On this island Mr. Donisthorpe remained from April 26th to 

 May 2nd, and a list of the beetles which he captured there is as 

 follows : — 



Carabiis catenidatiis, Scop., C. dathratiis, L., C. (/rannlatiis, L., 6\ 

 arvensis, Hbst., Notiophihis aquaticns, L., Nebria brcvicollis, F., Blethisa 

 midtipunctata, L., Elaphnis cuprens, Duft., Loricera pilicornis, F., 

 Clivina fossor, L., Dyschirius (jlohosus, Hbst., Badhter bipHstidatiis, F., 

 Bradycellns verbosci, Duft., Pterostichus vuhjaris, L., P. nigrita, F., P. 

 streiiuus, Pz., P. dilifjens, Stm., Amara fainiliaris, Duft., A. tricialis, 



