214 [February, 
Winter ca/ptures of Coleoptera at Wlmileclyii. — I briefly note the results of tliree 
hurried excursions (about an hour each) to one of my old localities here, — a pond 
near the windmill, — as shewing that the combined influences of drainage, bricks 
and mortar, volunteer camps, and perpetual rifle-shooting, have failed to destroy 
the entomological value of this well-known spot. All my captures were made by 
cutting tufts, &c., at the edge of the aforesaid pond ; exposed the while to the 
peculiarly searching blasts that coiarso unchecked over the expanse of the open 
common. 
Lamprinus saginatus, 3. In company with Tachyporiis chrysomeUmos, to which 
it bears an absurd resemblance. A question for mimetic-analogists : which of these 
beetles mimics the other, — and why ? Has the Lamprinus an intuitive perception 
that the Tachyporus is so common that no Coleopterist would knowingly bottle it ? 
Stenus longitarsis, Thoms., 2 S and 1 ? . This is the place where, years ago, 
I first took this rare insect, then known as " small ater," and which has recently 
been found in other parts of the continent besides Sweden. 
S. lustrator, S ■ The Wimbledon examples agree with those from Shirley in 
difiiBring from the fen specimens through their shorter elytra and the degree of 
darkness suSused at the apex of their femora ; they cannot, however, I think be 
specifically separated from the latter. 
S. canaliculatus ; S. ciciyideloides, 1 or 2 <? (which sex, as noted by Erichson, I 
always find very rare) ; Mycetoporus lepiclus, in numbers, chiefly the dark var. ; 
Tachyporus transversalis, common, and now apparently migrated from the far 
distant Kiesetiwetteri locality ; T. scitulus. 
Evcesthet/us Iceviuscuhis, 12. Calodera riparia. Almchara hrevipennis. Hister 
neglectiis, 2. Ancliomenus sexpunctatus, 3. 
A- versutus, 12. Readily distinguishable from A. vidmos, — which occurs with 
it, and by which it is often represented in collections, — by its smaller size, broader 
and shorter thorax, flat interstices, and much less robust legs and antennas. 
Stenolophus dorsalis, several specimens. These Wimbledon examples vary 
much in size (some being scarcely larger than S. luridus), and more in colour, 
exhibiting intermediate gi'ades between almost entirely testaceous and pitchy- 
black, with a lighter humeral patch to the elytra,— the latter extreme, indeed, 
closely simulating S. meridianus. The entirely pitchy-black, or pseudo-derelictiis 
form, has not been found by me. 
Last year I found here one example of Anisodadylus binotatus, var. (?) 
atricornis ; my two specimens of which (apart from the marked and, apparently, 
constant characters of lesser size and darker colour attributed to this insect) have 
the outer apex of the elytra distinctly more deeply sinuate than in the supposed type 
form ; a character much relied upon for specific separation in the Hitrpalidoe by the 
late Dr. Schaum, but which alone does not seem to afibrd anything like a safe 
guide. — E. C. Rye, 284-, King's Road, Chelsea, January, 1867. 
Newspaper Entninolng y.^The following little gem, from the Times of the 10th 
January, may have escaped the notice of some of our readers. 
"The Potato and its ParasitjiS.— It is stated in La Patrie that 'The 
" microscope reveals to us the existence of a small black spot, of the diameter of a 
"pin's head, in the potato. In this small space can be detected some 200 ferocious 
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