ipi.v^ 309 



*10. — S. aureum Fries, {anfjustitarsis Lundstr.). Mildenhall and near 

 Ipswich ; Cambridge ; Porthcawl. 



*11. — S. angustipes Edw. Padstow, Cornwall; Wells, Somerset; Crow- 

 borough, Sussex ; Harrow district ; Cambridge ; Barton Mills, Suffolk ; Walton- 

 on-Naze; Nairn; Logie, Elgin ; Sligo. 



*12.—S. suhezcisum Edw. New Forest; Crowborough, Sussex; Harrow 

 Weald, Middlesex ; Tarrington, Hereford. Aviemore, Dunachton and Nethy 

 Bridge, Inverness ; Nairn ; The Mound, Sutherland. 



13. — S. hirtipes Fries. Widely distributed in the Scottish Highlands, but 

 not yet recorded from England, Wales or Ireland. 



Harrow : 



September 2nd, 1915. 



Note on the habits, ^'c, of Ochthebius poweri Rye. — In the August number of 

 this Magazine (p. 239) the capture of a single example of this species at 

 Exmouth was recorded. During the past month I have had several opportunities 

 of again searching for it in the same locality, at first withovit success, till the 

 habits of the insect were discovered. As already stated, it lives on the face of 

 the red sandstone cliffs in the earthy incrustation deposited by the constant 

 trickling of water from above, in places just moistened by the fine spray ; but 

 it is not to be found amongst the slimy Algoid growth affected by the Laccobii, 

 Elmids, Hydraenae, &e. The insect, when disturbed, immediately hides itself in 

 any available crevice, evidently disliking the light, and at other times clings as 

 tightly as an Elmis to the moistened face of the cliff. If the earth adjacent to 

 the trickles of water is scraped away too freely, the locality is soon destroyed by 

 the water carrying everything down to the beach below, where the insects are 

 of course lost. Upwards of a score of specimens were eventually captured by 

 the close examination of this moistened earth, the insect being often so 

 encrusted with dirt that it is diflficiilt to detect. The only other beetle occurring 

 with it was Georyssus pygmaeus. The places mentioned are all above the reach 

 of the highest tides, and Rye's statement that the species lives in brackish water 

 (possibly based on information supplied by Dr. Power) can scarcely be correct. 

 0. poweri Eye (1869), treated as a variety of 0. dentifer Key (1885) in our latest 

 British Catalogue, seems to me to be inseparable (when cleaned specimens are 

 compared) from the variable 0. metallescens Rosenh. (1847), the only apparent 

 difference being its small size and coarser elytral punctuation. These characters, 

 however, will not even serve to distinguish British examples, as I have taken 

 others exactly like tiiem at Azazga, Algeria, from the bed of a nearly dried up 

 stream. Qanglbauer gives a very extended distribution for 0. metallescens, 

 though Britain and Algeria are, of covxrse, not included. Kuwert places 

 0. metallescens next to 0. poweri, in his sub-genus Cheilochthebius, figuring the 

 head and prothorax of each of them, but the slight differences shown in his 

 illustrations are probably due to the position from which these portions of the 

 insect are viewed. The allied 0. foveolatus Germ, and 0. dentifer Rey have 



