28 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



must except the south-western corner of Scotland from this statement 

 as one or two southern forms occur there, but I will deal with this 

 interesting point in a paper which will shortly be ready upon the 

 aquatic Coleoptera of the Sohvay district. 



Both testacens and waritinius are found in the N.E. of Ireland 

 as well as in the south. The latter is a coast species but is not 

 recorded from the north-west — Mayo, Sligo, Donegal or Derry. Other- 

 wise the records are sufficient to indicate that it probably occurs in all 

 the other coast counties, and from my experience in Cork and Antrim 

 it is probably a common species throughout. Testacens, although 

 recorded from Armagh, Down, Roscommon, Wexford and north Cork, 

 is apparently not a common species in Ireland. The southern tendency 

 in the distribution of this species in England is curious in view of the 

 fact that in Siberia it ranges from Yeniseisk in the north, to Turkestan 

 in the south. 



It is difficult to describe the distribution of the next two species, as 

 the records do not at present indicate any definite localisation. 

 Melanocep/iali(s has a wider distribution than either testacens or mari- 

 tiiiius, and is a fairly common species in the southern Scottish peat- 

 mosses, but I know of no record farther north than Elgin, perhaps 

 because the district has not been much -worked ! The distribution of 

 nigricans agrees generally with that of nielanocephalns, and perhaps 

 both species belong to Watson's " British " type. Both species occur 

 in Ireland but the records are at present few. 



With regard to )innutns and coarctatus the records are a little more 

 definite. Minutus is either absent from, or rare in, the eastern and 

 south-eastern counties of England, with the exception of Surrey, 

 w^here it is more often recorded than coarctatus. It is a fairly common 

 species in the north of England and south of Scotland, occurring 

 chiefly in peat-mosses in the sphagnum water-holes. Dr. Sharp 

 records it from the Tay district, and he also records coarctatus from the 

 same district, but for this latter species I know of no other Scottish 

 record, except for the three south-western, counties where it is fairly 

 common. It is a fresh-water marsh species, as distinct from a peat- 

 moss one, and, although it occurs with mimitics in some localities, e.if., 

 Chaloner's Whin, York, they are not normally members of the same 

 group. 



Coarctatus then would appear to be a more southern species than 

 Diiniitus, yet in Ireland the former species occurs in the north, south 

 and east, whereas )iriniitiis is so far only recorded from south Kerry 

 and north Cork. The Irish distribution of this latter species is there- 

 fore rather extraordinary. Species confined in Ireland to the south- 

 west, are usually regarded as the remnants of the Lusitanian fauna 

 and flora which originated in south-west Europe, and such species do 

 not occur in the highlands of Scotland ; yet here is a species typically 

 an inhabitant of peat-mosses, which abounds in " the land of bogs " 

 apparently confined to a small area in the south-west of the country. 



It may be possible to better understand the curiosities in the dis- 

 tribution of these species, after a more extended study of the distribution 

 of all the water-beetles, but at present, and in view of the comparative 

 scarcity of records, it would be useless to attempt to explain the causes 

 of them. 



