02 [August, 



Occurrence of Psnmmodins porcicollis, III., in Cornwall. — -At the end of last June, 

 wliQe searching for Coleoptera on the beach at Wliitsand Bay, a very picturesque, 

 but wild and unfrequented part of the Cornish coast, I was fortunate enough to pick 

 up a single example of a Psammodius which has been determined by my friend 

 Mr. Gr. C. Champion as P. porcicollis, 111. This species has already appeared in some 

 of our catalogues, on the authority of a single specimen mixed with P. sulcicollis, 

 in the British collection of the Rev. W. Kirby. It is, however, omitted by Dr. 

 Sharp from his catalogue. 



I found the beetle on the sand under a tuft of Ononis a few yards above high 

 water-mark. Strict searching on this and subsequent occasions has as yet failed to 

 produce any further traces of the insect, beyond a dismembered pair of elytra, which 

 I found a few days ago. — James J. Walkee, R.N., H.M.S. " Swiftsure," Plymouth : 

 July 17th, 1S75. 



Captures of Coleoptera in the Manchester district. — The following species may be 

 worth noticing : — Platysoma ohlongum ; a single specimen, found under bark of pine 

 several years since. The pine was a fallen one, and I cannot, of course, tell from 

 whence it came.* Atomaria impressa, under decaying mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) 

 on the banks of the Mersey, near Northern. Myrmecoxenus vapor ariorum, under a 

 piece of wood, on a duug-hcap, in a farm-yard at Withington, in early spring. 

 Hydroporus ohsoletus, out of Sphagnum on Chat Moss. Choleva colonoides, in 

 decaying fungus ; Cis vestitus, on decayed branches of oak with small Boleti growing 

 on them ; and a black Anapsis (which Mr. Rye tells me is apparently undcscribed) 

 conspicuous by its unicolorous antennae, in decayed branches of oak, and in Boleti 

 growing upon the trunks of oaks ; — in Dunham Park. Homalota hepatica and 

 Homalium Alla/rdi have also occurred to me. 



I may also mention an enormous species of Blaps (larger than B. gages), which 

 was given to me alive, found in a cotton mill at Asliton-under-Lyne. — J. CnAPPELL, 

 1, Naylar Street, Hulmc, Manchester : July, 1875. 



On cwpturing, killing, and setting Ilymenoptera. — I read in the June number of 

 this Magazine, with some surprise, an article " On killing and preserving Ilymen- 

 optera," the recommendations contained in which I am totally unable to discover the 

 utility of pubhshing. I am in the constant habit of seeing collections of Hymen- 

 opiera, brought to me for identification or otherwise, and I am delighted at their 

 perfect state of preservation ; they arc well pinned, well set, and leave nothing to be 

 desired ; these, I usually find, arc prepared according to my own method. 



Dr. Kriechbaumer's belief that the method he recommends is the best that can 

 be adopted, results from 30 years' practice ; but, after mature consideration, I come 

 to the conclusion that if it were put into practice by mj'self, the result would be the 

 spoiling of three-fourths of a season's collecting. 



The method of killing Hymenoptera is, I admit, of groat — I may say vital — 

 importance. I quite agree with Dr. Kriechbaumer that sulphuric ether, chloroform, 

 benzine, or cyanide of potassium should never be xised ; but I have never found, by 

 the use of any of these (I have tried them all), that the limbs "became, very soon, 



* Mr. Chappell has submitted this insect {a well carded and unpinned specimen) to me. The 

 genus beuig doubtful a.i British, it is much to be regretted that Mr. Chappell, who has only 

 recently seriously occupied himself with Coleoptera, did not at the time of capture know the 

 importance of obtaining evidence as to the tree in wbjih his insect waa found.— E. C. R. 



