1S72 ] 33 



Notes on the Coleoptera of Slapton, irUli (Jesrriplion of a new upecies of Seopaus. 

 — Haring recently been deluded by !i sudden outburst of fine weather into visiting 

 >Sl:i]iton, a few notes on the very moderate amount of success which we obtained 

 during our fivi^ days' sojourn at the Sands Hotel may not be altogether uninterest- 

 ing ; and I have compiled them with the greater pleasure, inasmuch as the locality 

 (liowever haunted by fishermen) is but little known to Colcopterists, and it is now 

 exactly twenty years since I first made its acquaintance, — giving the result of my 

 then experience in the September number of the ' Zoologist ' for 1852. AUhough 

 I have on several occasions since that period re-visited Slapton, I must confess tliat 

 tlie low estimate which I originally formed (and placed upon record) of its produc- 

 tiveness has not been materially altered. Each time a few additional species have 

 undoubtedly presented themselves, which could not but tend to raise its character as 

 a collecting-station for the entomologist ; but, still, the list which it has gradually 

 supplied seems to me to fall very far short of what (to say the least) its exceedingly 

 promising appearance and remote southern position would have led one to anticipate. 



Our late expedition was perhaps more successful than any of my previous ones ; 

 and yet, in reality, the reverse ought to have been the case, — for not only was the 

 time of our arrival there (May 2nd) full early for a region thus exceptionally bleak 

 and exposed, but (alas !) the weather, which appeared so full of hope on oiir depar- 

 ture from Teignmouth, commenced to change by the time that we had reached the 

 Ley, and became worse each day that we were there ; so that it was next to 

 impossible to do anything, and we were fairly driven home again at last by the 

 inhospitality of the elements. It was on this account that I failed almost to look 

 for the main species for which we went, — namely, the little Hydroporus minutissimus, 

 which was detected there by my wife three years ago {vide Ent. Mon. Mag., vi, 

 p. 57), and which we afterwards met with in considerable niunbers ; for the 

 waters of the lake were so cold and turbulent (having been lashed into a thick fringe 

 of white froth, along its edges, by a bitter ?f .W. wind) that there seemed literally no 

 place for a sun-loving diver, whose proper habitat is among the warm shingle of the 

 calm, shallow pools, which have been shaped-out by the inequalities of the shore. 

 Yet, in spite of this, I just managed to ascertain, though with some amount of real 

 difficulty, that it still tenants its old haunts, by captui-ing two individuals. 



It would be waste of time to enumerate in extenso the common species of the 

 district : suffice it to remark that they would for the most part arrange themselves 

 under three tolerably distinct heads, — namely, those found in the water (which I 

 have reason to think are not numerous), those peculiar to the shingle (decidedly the 

 most characteristic members of the fauna), and those from the swampy lands and 

 edges of the lake {removed from the long, shingly side, or barrier, which separates 

 the latter from the sea), where mud (emphatically so called) and marsh-plants may 

 be said to constitute the prevailing featiu'c. 



(1). Of the Hydradephac/a (and, still less, of the rhilhydrida) I will not now 

 speak, the species which I have ever been able to obtain being, with tlie exception of 

 Hydroporus minutissimus, of the very commonest description. Indeed, the two 

 which appear more particularly to abound, are the universal Noierus semipunctalus 

 and a Laccophilas ; whilst even such plebian insects as the Hyphydrus ferruyineus, 

 the Hydroporus incequalis, depressus, and palustris, and the Ilybius fuliyinosus, 

 although occurring, are not by any means the pests that one might, from analogy, 

 have been led to suppose. 



