1887.] 211 



Wednesdaj was a complete failure, for though we walked through the Pass of 

 Llanberis to Pen-y-pass Inn, and ascended Snowdon from thence, descending to 

 Llanberis in the evening, the day was so dreadfully hot, that everything in the way 

 of herbage, moss, &c., was burnt up, even large stones lying in the sunshine being 

 too hot to touch. By the roadside iu the Pass I picked up another Corymhites 

 tessellatus, and among shingle on the bank of the stream which comes down from 

 Cwm Glas I found a single Homalota which I believe to be plajiifrons. 



On Thursday I started alone, and after four hours' hard searching, and hard 

 work it was in the intensely hot sun, I at last dropped across a single cerealis. Only 

 an enthusiastic entomologist can imagine my feelings when, in a moment more, there 

 appeared, nearly in the same spot, a pair in copula, and then more until I had 

 bottled what I thought were 20, but which proved to be only 17, all collected from 

 a spot where there was very little thyme, and not more than a dozen paces square. 

 The collection of these took nearly four hours, and there was not another to be 

 found anywhere near. 



On Thursday we felt too tired to attempt another day at cerealis, so walked 

 across the mountains, the road lying between Moel Goch and Moel Cinghorion, to 

 Snowdon Eanger, a walk of four miles only, but one which commands some of the 

 finest scenery in the neighbourhood. Here, as on Snowdon itself, everything was 

 scorched up with the intense heat, and no beetles were to be found. 



Friday found us again on the spot where we had previously taken cerealis, but 

 only a single sjiecimen turned up. After a considei-able ramble I happened, fortu- 

 nately, to spy another individual at some distance from the other locality, and setting 

 to work, I found the species again, this time in greater number, but still very local 

 in their distribution, all occui'ring on a sloping bank wliei-e there was a profusion 

 of wild thyme, but only a few square yards in extent. There I took also Pterostichus 

 cBthiops running in the hot sun. I most fully endorse Mr. Champion's remark that 

 cerealis is " a beautiful object when crawling about in the sunshine." The individuals 

 are easily seen when exposed, but they have a habit of " dodging " in and out of the 

 herbage, so that one has to keep a sharp look out, and to pounce at once on the 

 slightest twinkle of their exquisitely coloured elytra. They seem to be most plentiful 

 about 2 p.m., when they are frequently seen in copula, but they require the hottest 

 sunshine to bring them out, indeed, so hot was the bank on which they occurred, 

 that it was quite uncomfortable to sit down upon. I was fortunate in this excursion 

 to hit exactly the time of their emergence from the pupal condition, for not only 

 ■were several of the specimens taken quite soft, but also we found no remains of dead 

 specimens in the nests, beneath stones, of the very numerous and apparently well-fed 

 spiders which abound on these slopes, and which, to judge of what remained of their 

 meals, had dined freely upon everything else in the beetle line that we had come 

 across iu our travels. 



I may mention, that throughout our various excursions, we found Cramlus 

 furcatellus common at any elevation above 1500 feet, but owing to my mistaking it 

 at the time for C. margaritellus, I did not secure more than about half-a-dozen. 

 Thoroughly satisfied with our hot but very successful holiday, we left for Llandudno 

 on Saturday morning. — John W. Ellis, Brougham Terrace, Liverpool. 



