LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 515 
minute beetles, and not a few Ilymenoptera and Diptera, 
frequent them. Morasses also have their peculiar insects. 
In these you will meet with some of the scarcer Eutre- 
ch'ma : as Chlania holosericea and nigricornis, Bletliisa 
midtipunctata, various Bcmbidia, &c. In this kind of dis- 
trict in the Isle of Ely Aphodius plagiatus has been taken, 
and that scarce and beautiful butterfly Lyccena Virgau- 
rece. Where land is cultivated the Entomologist as 
well as the farmer may expect a harvest. Insects in 
general are fond of perching on the summit of a blade of 
grass or corn; and many minute ones may be taken 
coursing about in the ears of the latter : some to devour 
the fungilli that infest the grain, as Phalacrus corruscus 
in Reticularia Segetum ; others to attack the grain itself, 
as Cecidomyia Tritici ; others to destroy these destroyers, 
as three little parasites belonging to the Chalcidites a . 
But I have already mentioned most of those insects that 
are to be expected in such situations b : I shall therefore 
only further observe, that upon barley particularly you 
will meet with the species of Latreille's genus Cephus. 
With respect to soils, those that are light appear to be 
most prolific in insects. Warm sandy banks are fre- 
quented by Cicindela campestris, Opatrum sabulosum, He- 
lops quisquilius, &c. : in them (when of a southern aspect) 
Ammophilce, Pomjrili, and numerous Hymenoptera nidifi- 
cate. Chalk also attracts various insects. Latreille ob- 
serves, that the Licini, Papilio Cleopatra, several species 
oiDasytes, and some Lamice, delight in this kind of soil c : 
— in my own neighbourhood I have observed Polyom- 
matus Corydon principally in chalk-pits. One of these 
a Linn. Trans, iv. 30— v. 96—. t. iv. b Vol. I. Letter VI. 
c Geograph. &c. 6. 
2 L 2 
