Ig [January, 



Second day. - Nature of rubbish, mixed sticks, leaves, grass, etc., great and 

 small. Quantity of rubbish proportionately much greater, the water having 

 been " out " for 24 hours. Number of beetles comparatively small, casual 

 examination of the rubbish showing only a few crawling here and there. 

 Beetles taken — Ilybii, Aphodii, and small Carabidae in moderate abundance, and 

 a large number of Staphylinidae, but a number infinitesimal as compared with 

 those seen ou the previous day. 



Observations. — While the water is rising, and has jusit come over the fields, 

 is the best time for the Coleopterist to hunt, since the marooned insects disappear 

 in a marvellous manner in 24 hoiu's or less. 



Staphylinidae in flood-rubbish are, like the poor, always with us, but whereas, 

 on the first day of the rising flood, phytophagous Goleoptera are much in 

 evidence, their place is taken on the second day by onthophagous beetles and 

 their predaceous brothers (both 'wet bobs' and 'dry bobs'). Is there more 

 than coincidence in the synchrony of the disappearance of the plant feeders 

 with the appearance of the predaceous beetles ? 



Two other points on flood-rubbish hunting : — Firstly, when in the field I 

 follow Nature's Entomologists — the starlings - who are epicures, and from 

 whose discordant gossip one may learn where the best ' restaurants ' may be 

 found. Secondly, the local tinsmith has made me a useful apparatus for this 

 work by fixing a handle on each side of an ordinary biscuit tin, from which he 

 had cut away the bottom and substituted half-inch wire gauze. In this simple 

 box, when the lid is on, the rubbish, being capable of extra vigorous shaking, 

 may be dealt with in greater quantity and more rapidly. — F. Thompson, 

 River Bank, Sunbiiry-on-Thames .- Nov. 11th, 1916. 



[My personal experience with flood-rubbish agrees with that of most 

 collectors, including Dr. Thompson, in that I find it most productive by far if 

 it is taken when the water has just reached its maximum height. This is 

 especially the case with a spring or summer flood, as the beetles then disappear 

 very quickly when the water recedes ; but in winter the rubbish often repays 

 examination for several weeks after being deposited (c/. Ent. Mo. Mag., Vol. 

 XXXIV, pp. 56, 57 ; Vol. XXXV, pp. 57-60, 115). Certain species, however, 

 seem always to leave the refuse almost at once. A rapidly rising flood is much 

 the most remunerative, a slow rise giving the insects time to get away. My own 

 practice is to bring home a large bag of the less coarse refuse, to allow it to 

 dry for several days (with the mouth of the bag securely tied up, of course), 

 and to work it first through a sieve of quarter-inch mesh into another bag, and 

 these siftings again over paper, in very small quantities at a time, through one 

 of about ten meshes to the inch. In this way the numerous very minute 

 and often desirable beetles present may. be readily detected. — J, J.W.] 



Vanessa urticaein Upper Teesdaleand at Hart. — Eeferringto Dr. Chapman's 

 remarks on V. urticae in Ent. Mo. Mag. (LII, pp. 186, 207, 1916), the following note 

 may be of interest. I spent from July 4th imtil the end of the month at 

 Egglestone in Upper Teesdale. It is a very hilly country, and I was unable to 

 get about very mixch, but in the short walks I was able to take V. urticae was 



