88 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES AND OBSERVATIONS. 
Indeed I doubt if S. longifolia be specifically distinct from S. 
graminea. However this may be it would be very well, should 
any botanist be up Tynedale, that attention should be directed 
to any such Séellaria growing by the river side. Mr. Bow- 
man’s specimen has probably been entangled in a tuft of Are- 
naria. 8. longifolia differs from S. graminea in having the 
upper branches and the edges and keel of the leaves scabrous 
more or less.—Professor Oliver, 16 Feb., 1865. 
Curious instance of tenacity of life in a Cockchafer.—W hen in 
Cumberland lately, I had brought to me a cockchafer (Melolan- 
tha vulgaris) which was mutilated in a most extraordinary 
manner. The scutellum, elytra, wings, upper half of abdomen, 
the whole of the viscera, and the contents of the mesothorax and 
metathorax were gone; yet with the exception of the hind pair 
of legs, which the insect could not move, the poor creature was 
as active as if unhurt. Moreover it had apparently been for 
some days in this state, the interior of the abdomen, and other 
parts being quite dry and smooth. Shut up in a tin box, more 
than twenty-four hours elapsed before life became extinct.—T. 
J. Bold, Long Benton, July 1, 1863. 
Capture of a new British Beetle, near South Shields.—I took, 
beneath stones on the sea shore, near South Shields, on the third 
of April last, three specimens of Bembidium (TLachys) Fockii, 
Hummell, an insect new to the English fauna. Itis a beautiful 
little creature of active habits, and at first sight looks like a very 
lively specimen of Lathridius lardarius. Dr. Schaum records it 
as occurring at Baden, in the Tyrol, South of Europe, Crimea, 
Caucasus, Algiers and Syria, and Mr. Wollaston found it in 
Madiera; a wide range for so small a creature.—JIbid, May 20, 
1863. 
Note on Bledius arenarius.—In the early part of this month I fell 
in with a colony of Bledius arenarius, Payk, and in its burrows 
found several specimens of Dyschirius thoracicus, Fab. The 
colony was established in a damp sloping sand bank, on the sea 
coast near Whitley. The shallow burrowing of the insect 
had raised the sand in irregular lines, which becoming dry, 
gave the whole the appearance of miniature mole runs, the resem- 
