218 September, 



RHIZOTROGUS OCHRACEUS, Enoch, CONFIRMED AS BRITISH. 

 BY DK. D. SHARP, M.A., F.R.S. 



Mr. C. Gr. Lamb, the Dipterologist, while, in Cornwall last month 

 wrote me that a Rhizotror/us was flying there in the daytime. Knowing 

 from continental experience that this is the habit of R. ochraceus, I 

 asked him to bring two or three examples, thinking it just possible 

 the Cornwall " dor " might prove to be this great rarity. He has 

 accordingly kiudly given me five specimens that are this much-wished- 

 for beetle. Fowler says of it : " Very rare ; Holyhead, Wales 

 (Stevens and Brewer) ; one specimen recorded by Stephens from pro- 

 bably Derbyshire or Yorkshire." 



In the Cornwall locality the insect is not uncommon, but we 

 shall have to wait till another year for a supply of it. As already 

 remarked it flies in the daytime. R. solstitialis is abundant in the 

 same locality, and, as usual, flies in the evening. Probably any one 

 finding a Rhizotrogus flyiug in the west at mid-day will be in posses- 

 sion of this insect. 



Cambridge : 



August 12th, 1902. 



Bembidium argenteolum, Ahr., at Lough Neagh. — The circumstances of the 

 discovery of B. argenteolum, together with a description of this interesting addition 

 to our British Coleoptera, will be found in the List of the Beetles of Ireland com- 

 piled by Mr. J. N. Halbert and myself, and published in the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Irish Academy, 3rd Series, vol. vi, No. 4. 



I had not an opportunity of revisiting the place of its capture until last month, 

 when Mrs. Johnson and I spent a day on the shores of Lough Neagh, and at 

 Ardmore again met with the beetle. The day was dull and cloudy and the water 

 very high, so that it was difficult to find it. After a good deal of work we managed 

 to take a dozen. The beetles are found on sandy and shingly parts of the shore, 

 and hide either just below the surface of the sand or under small stones. As soon 

 as the sun shone out they began to emerge from their hiding places. Along with 

 these Bembidia we took Dyschirius obscurus, Pelophila boreal is, anil Hil/iha dispar; 

 insects were, however, very scarce. 



There is a specimen of Bembidium argenteolum in the collection of the late 

 Robert Patterson, F.R.S. , of Belfast, which is labelled " Shane's Castle, 1831." It 

 is interesting to note that seventy years afterwards, viz., in 1901, a grandson of this 

 gentleman, also named Robert Patterson, should be the finder of another addition 

 to the liBt of British Coleoptera, viz., Stenus jjalposus, Zctt. (vide Johnson and 

 Halbcrt's List of the Beetles of Ireland, p. b'65), and that the discovery should also 

 be made on the shore of Lough Neagh, though at a different part, near Toome. 



B. argenteolum has also been taken by Mr. II. L. Orr, of Belfast, at Glenavy, 

 Co. Antrim, on the eastern shore of Lough Neagh. This, with Mr. Kemp's record, 

 points to the presence of the beetle in suitable places all round the lake. — W. F. 

 Johnson, Acton Glebe, Poyntzpass : August 9th, 1902. 



