230 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Matthews, by sweeping in peat-pits, near Weston, Oxfordshire : 

 although he tried the same place for some years, neither he nor 

 the Rev. A. Matthews could discover another specimen, until one 

 day, while searching the edges of a small ditch, about a foot broad 

 and two inches deep, for Leistus rufescens (then considered a rare 

 beetle), the latter collector happened to pull up some small sticks 

 from the bottom, and on these he found Euhria in abundance. It 

 seems never to be found except about the last week in July. 

 Hydrocyphon deflexicollis, as its name (the water-cyphon) implies, 

 is always found in swampy ground, if not actually in the water. 



The water Hemiptera are well worth working at the same time 

 with the Coleoptera. Many species, such as Nepa and Notonecta, the 

 water- scorpion and water-boatman, are familiar to the most casual 

 observer of pond-life. Aplieloclieii'us and Mesomelia furcata are very 

 rare, and have never been taken in abundance, except by Dr. Power; 

 the former appears only to be found in running streams. Ranatra 

 is rather rare, but is found not uncommonly near London and Deal. 

 The genus Corixa is very interesting, but very hard to work out at 

 first : species are to be found in almost every pool and stream, and 

 new ones often fall to the lot of any person who really works the 

 genus ; the points of distinction between the species, although in 

 many cases small, seem to be constant, but it is a question whether 

 we have not too many species, and whether some of them will not 

 have to be merged into other species, as has already been done in 

 one or two cases. The minuter water Hemiptera, Plea, Cymatia 

 and Sigara, are usually found with the CorixcB, of which the 

 species of the two latter genera are abridged likenesses. 



The productiveness of moss on the edges of ponds has already 

 been spoken of, but the half-submerged moss in and under water- 

 falls requires mention. It is under this that Dianous aerulescens, 

 Stenus Guynemeri, Quedius auricomus, and the rare Enryporus 

 picipes, are to be found. I believe that the very scarce Homalota 

 ccerulea has been found in Derbyshire in the same way, but I have 

 never taken it. The Elmides seem to prefer stones in broken 

 water or waterfalls. E. subviolaceus, for instance, occurs in 

 profusion under a mossy waterfall, on the shore near Steephill, 

 Ventnor. 



To leave water-collecting altogether, we may say that moss in 

 any locality is productive of good species. At all seasons of the 

 year Scydmcenidce, small Staphylmid(e, especially Tachypori and 



