258 [September, 



hnmile Genu., A. violaceuni Kirby, etc. There are, however, a number 

 of species occixrring with us whose presence is somewhat difficult to 

 explain on the score of x'epopulation during recent years; e.[/., apterous 

 and sub-apterous species, such as Cychrus rosfratus L., which has 

 occurred within a hundred yards of my house ; Pterostichus cristafns 

 Duft., which is even abundant in one or two places near Jarrow, and 

 occurs almost as freely under cinders and bits of cold slag as under logs 

 in a wood ; and Cheimatobia hrnmata L., whose larvae are found on 

 every bush that fumes and farmers have left to us. There seems little 

 reason to doubt that these retained their hold on the district even 

 during the days when acid fumes were drenching the soil ; and this is 

 more easily credible when one sees the conditions under which Coleoptera 

 and even Lepidoptera exist in the inferno of the furnace region of 

 Tees-side. Another interesting species which has occurred in Jarrow 

 is Ancistronyclia ahdominalis F., of which a single specimen was picked 

 up near my house in the early morning of May 24th, 1912. The nearest 

 record given by Bold for this insect is the Derwent Valley, which is 

 separated from us by tw^o ridges of uplands, 700 and 500 feet high 

 respectively, with a very deep valley in between. It is rather hard to 

 believe that the insect could cover twelve miles of such difficult country ; 

 it is just possible that it may have come from the Wear Valley seven 

 miles away, but Mr. Bagnall has no record of its occurrence there. 

 Assuming, then, that it is an insect of local origin, this species also 

 must presumably have survived under conditions which are generally 

 regarded as very inimical to insect life. Water insects do not seem to 

 have suffered to any great extent, probably because most of our streams 

 are very rapid, and even in ponds the affected water would in time sink 

 into the earth or be neutralised by chemical action wdth the soil, so that 

 the contaminated water would never have an opportunity of becoming 

 so strong as to destroy life. Hence w^e get in numbers Brychius elevatus 

 Panz., Hydroporus rivalis Gyll., H. davisi Curt., Haliplus obliquus F., 

 Dytwcus marginalis L., D. punctulahis F., Gyrimis natator Scop., Elmie 

 aeneus Miill., etc. ' 



As regards coalpits, the balance of evidence seems to show that their 

 direct effect upon the neighbouring insect fauna is almost negligible. 

 Despite the growth of the coal industry and the opening out of new 

 pits, many of them extremely close to, or even touching, our best 

 collecting grounds, practically all the beetles given by Hardy and Bold 

 in their list of the Coleoptera of Northumberland and Durham still 

 occur in their original haunts, allowance, of course, being made for the 



