232 THE entomologist's RKCORb. 



swoep-net, is very vivid. It was towards the end of April, and perhaps 

 rather early in the season for the better coast species. Arrived at the 

 sand-hills, the first thing that caiight the eye was a dead specimen of 

 JldiojiatJu's i/ihhns, which afterwards occurred abundantly at the roots 

 of the grass, by pulling up which the majority of the good things were 

 taken, though loose sods and stones appeared to afford an equally 

 secure and acceptable retreat to many of the (jrcodephai/a. A pair of 

 forceps proved quite capable of performing what little digging was 

 necessary, though they were of biit slight use for capturing the small 

 species, as a grain of sand larger than the insect would often be care- 

 fully raised for examination, the coleopteron the while scuttling away 

 with might and main to some approximate hiding place, wherein, if 

 not previously detected, he Avould lie jjcnlu till again disturbed by the 

 all-ferreting forceps. 



I shall not soon forget the exquisite pleasure of lying at full length 

 upon the warm sand, with pockets, eyes, boots, and hair quickly 

 absorbing its grains, beneath the genial and still novel warmth of the 

 April sun, with pipe in mouth and collecting tube in hand, bottling 

 species with which I had only previously become acquainted through 

 the kindness of my correspondents and friends. The beetle I was 

 especially desirous of obtaining was that essentially sand-hill species, 

 Hi/pcra faseicnlata, but for some cause or other I failed to turn it up ; 

 perhaps the season was too young, though more probably I overlooked 

 its food-plant, Erodium viarittiimm, the stork's bill, which grows almost 

 exclusively, and somewhat rarely, on sandy sea coasts,'-' and which, at 

 the time, I knew simply as " a kind of wild geranium." Carefully 

 pulling up the maritime grass and sand- wort in handfuls, soon pro- 

 duced the desired effect ; many species I had never seen alive before 

 were abundant, such as Harpalm f^erripes, Denietrius vionostu/nia, and 

 Otiorhynchus atroapterus. Calathufi mollis, flnvipes, fusciis, chteloidefi, 

 and melayiocephalm fell out in great numbers, and the haste with 

 which they essayed to regain their exalted hiding-places by traversing 

 the sand was most ludicrous, as for every inch they progressed, the 

 loose grains, upon which they could find no secure fulcrum, slipped 

 back another. 



TrachijjiJiljcus ncabriculus, and similar small species, are so easily 

 overlooked on account of the close resemblance they bear to their 

 pabulum, that great circumspection is needed to detect them as they 

 lie curled up into tiny balls of grey, Cocrindla li-jumctata, on the 

 contrary, which appears to be the sand-hill species of the genus ])ar 

 excellence, comes, a relieving flash of scarlet from among the roots of the 

 capping sods of the pit. This was the only time I took Ontlwphaiim 

 nuchicornis at the roots of plants, whence several specimens came up 

 with. Aet/ialia a rciutria , Mei/acroniisanalis, ( 'ueor/iinns iiiiiihiatus,nsndothev 

 common things. The searching of precarious stones in the immediate 

 neighbourhood yielded many good species, such as Harpalun semis, 

 rotwulicollis, (ni.riiis and tanlus, Awara fulra, JMcon mnrinus, etc., and 

 short grass, of which there was a little, was productive of a few 

 Phyllotreta lepidii, commoner, however, at its roots. Onthoplnnins 

 michiconm was also very abundant i)i stercore, with AjiJiodius jiiiietarius 



* Erodium maritimum used to occur at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and is still 

 to be found growing on the sand-hills of the ancient coast-line to the east of Laken- 

 heath, in Suffolk, where I saw it in flower as recently as last September. — CM. 



