518 LOCAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 
gravel walks ; and so do many species of the genus 
Halictus % the habits and economy of which have been 
so ably detailed by M. Walckenaer b : Cerccris also, and 
other Hymcnoptera, will choose such places, however 
public, for the site of their nests or burrows. The ground 
is so consolidated by the constant foot, that they, proba- 
bly find such situations spare them a world of labour, and 
therefore in their choice balance one inconvenience by 
another. 
Though the sea itself, I believe, produces no true in- 
sects, yet there are many that constantly or occasionally 
haunt its shores. On the sand-hills of the Norfolk coast 
I found JEgialia globosa and Cicindela hybrida. Ceuto- 
rhynchus horridus inhabits thistles that grow near the sea. 
Under the Zostera and Ficci, (cast up both on its beach 
and the shores of estuaries,) many peculiar species of 
Cercyon, several Aphodii, and numerous Brachyptera, 
may often be found. In this situation the rare and 
singular Bledius armatus has been taken. At certain 
seasons of the year the beach and environs of the sea are 
covered by many species of Coccinella, which seem to 
bend their course thither from the inland country, as if 
they were about to emigrate c . When the weather is 
fine and the tide begins to retire, at the line of its 
highest rise I have taken on the eastern coast a variety 
of insects, land amongst the rest Anomala Frischii. The 
inundations of rivers, except in the depth of winter, 
always bring a number of these little creatures, which 
float on the surface on bits of stick, weeds, &c. ; and 
where they deposit these articles when the water begins 
•• Mclitta * *. b. Man. Ap. AngL i. 138- . 
b Memoircs sicr le genre Halictc. c Vol. II. p. 9. 
