17S [August, 



From all the open ground in this district it has apparently totally disappeared, and 

 the same at Dursley. I do not believe that collecting has been so persistently 

 carried on as to have played any appreciable part in the injury done ; but that this has 

 arisen from the combined causes of bad seasons and change of vegetation. It might 

 survive the bad seasons, as it must have done on the localities lately discovered, for 

 I can hardly think it would remove its quarters ; but if the food-plant is almost 

 entirely destroyed at the same time, there can be no hope of the butterflies 

 continuing their species, and there is no question whatever but that in its earlier 

 stages the larvae feed on the blossoms of wild thyme. 



What the prospect is on the newly discovered locality in this county one can 

 hardly pretend to say. It is greatly to be hoped that this will not be discovered by 

 greedy collectors. At present I believe it is totally unknown except to the three 

 persons named in this article and from whom L. Arion has nothing to fear. 



40, Triangle, Clifton : 



July lUh, 1896. 



[Is the credit that collectors take to themselves for turning out " worn " 

 examples warranted, as largely helping to continue the species ? My own opinion is 

 that pairing takes place very soon after emergence, and that the females, when 

 "worn," have already deposited all, or the greater part of, their ova. — -R. McLachlan.] 



HcBmonia Curtisi, Lac. — This pretty and curious beetle, a traditional inhabitant 

 of the brackish waters of the Isle of Sheppey, has, until the present year, eluded all 

 my efforts to find it " at home." A specimen casually found about the middle of 

 last month led me to the discovery of its habitat quite close to Sheerness, and by 

 persistent working with the water-net I have succeeded in taking a good series. The 

 ditch in which HcBmonia occurs is rather more than brackish ; it is, indeed, saline 

 enough for shrimps of the familiar (when boiled) red kind {Palcemon squilla) to 

 thrive and attain their full size, and it swarms with Oammarus and other Crusta- 

 ceans, as well as with sticklebacks of portentous dimensions. Potamogeton pectinatus 

 grows profusely in the water, and on this plant the HcBmonia is found sparingly, but 

 usually in pairs. No doubt the net gathers but a small proportion of those that are 

 actually there, as the power of the beetle for clinging to any substance is something 

 marvellous. It is no easy matter, first to remove it from the inside of the net without 

 leaving one or more of its long wiry legs behind, and next to transfer it safely from 

 one's fingers into the bottle. The Potamogeton is now in bloom, but I do not notice, 

 as I believe the Rev. H. S. Gorham did when he took HcBmonia rather freely in the 

 Isle of Sheppey some 25 years ago, any special partiality of the insect for the flower. 

 As the locality is within half a mile of ray house, I often stroll there for an hour in 

 the evening with my little girl, whose sharp eyes I find very serviceable in detecting 

 the lurking HcBmonia among the mass of debris and creeping things brought up by 

 the water-net. Four species of Bagous — limosus (petrostts, Wat. C&t.) , subcarinatvs, 

 frit and tempestiims — are to be found in this ditch with Berosus spinosus and other 

 beetles which are partial to brackish waters, while Heterocerus obsoletus and Aphodius 

 plagiatus burrow in its muddy banks. Mr. Champion met with the Hcf mania in 

 the same locality in 1886.— James J. Walker, 23, Ranelagh Road, Sheerness : 

 June Hth, 1896. 



