40 i-'^^^y' 



Note on Orchesies iota ; loith a moral. — My captures of Coleoptera this spring 

 have been few and unimportant, and many good species have been very rare or 

 altogether absent. I have, however, again found a few Oathormiocerus maritiiv/ns, 

 Eye, and eight specimens of an Orchestes, which Mr. Rye has named for me iota, 

 Fab. He also tells me that, according to M. H. Brisoutde Bameville's Monograph, 

 this species feeds on birch, Salix caprcea, and poplar ; but all my specimens were 

 beaten from Myrica Gale, in the latter end of May. On receiving his note I went 

 again to the locality, and carefully beat the sallows, but failed to obtain any, yet I 

 again boat four from the 'sweet gale.' 



This species is, I think, rare, which is no doubt owing to the difficulty of working 

 a bog in the spring when full of water ; and, had not the present season been a dry 

 one, I could not have got at it. As it was, I had to step from tuft to tuft, carefully 

 avoiding the water between, which was in some places very deep. An incident 

 occurred, whilst making my last search in this place, which I will relate, as it may 

 serve as a caution to young collectors. While at work on the middle of the bog, I 

 noticed a well-dressed person eyeing me with evident curiosity, apparently wondering 

 what I could possibly be at with an umbrella up-side down, under a buiming sun ; and, 

 seeming unable to resist the temptation. of satisfying himself, he essayed the somewhat 

 difficult feat of getting at me. The first few steps he managed very well, but I think 

 he must have mistaken the close covering of water-crowfoot on the water for solid 

 ground, for he took a step on the treacherous weed and then disappeared. The next 

 I saw of him, he was standing up to his hips in water and mud, clearing his eyes 

 and mouth. He had unwillingly taken "a header" into the deepest part of it. He 

 emerged from the side farthest from me, and at least three miles from any house 

 that could have been his home, — a wetter, and, let us hope, a wiser, man. 



Application : do not let your curiosity get the better of your discretion. — 

 Heney Monceeaff, High Street, Portsmouth: June loth, 1875. 



The Colorado Potato- Beetle. — This insect, which is one of the tetramerous 

 phytophagous Coleoptera, was only known up to a few years ago as living in the 

 Kocky Mountains towards New Mexico, where its larvae fed upon a wild plant of the 

 order Solanacem, the Solanum rostratum. This Solarium not being a common plant, 

 and having only restricted localities, the Dorypliora, according to the laws of nature, 

 was also a rare insect, occurring where the Solanum rostratum existed, and only 

 multiplying in a ratio proportionate to that of the limited distribution of the plant. 

 Note this well ; it is essential. 



The civilised white man has tlie bad habit (concerning wild plants and the 

 insects that feed upon them), in proportion as he spreads over the globe, to extend 

 also the cultivation of plants that he uses for food, or which are useful to liim in any 

 way. He thus substitutes an artificial flora for the natural one of the countries he 

 invades, and the former becomes still more restricted or vanishes altogether. 



The phytophagous insects, whose lot is linked to that of the native plants, follow 

 the same road. Without going beyond our own country, how many times have I 

 not heard a Lepidopterist anathematise the progress of cultivation in the Campine, 

 a progress that each year causes ' good species ' to disappear. How many times also 



