NOTES ON COLEOPTERA, ETC. 93 
earnest the interest never seems to flag. Work can be carried on at all 
times and seasons without a long idle time in the winter, which falls to 
the lot of Lepidopterists; a very little work and perseverance will 
suffice to give a knowledge of the chief genera, and when this knowledge 
has been acquired, and the student begins to make out his own 
specimens, when the first drudgery has been passed through, he will not 
be likely to give up his study, but will find it ever growing upon him, and 
opening out new fields of interest. 
The scarcity of workers at present has of course the effect of 
limiting the discoveries made, but I need only mention three beetles, all 
discovered in the midland district by one indefatigable worker—Mr. 
J. T. Harris, of Burton-on-Trent—to show that the fields are well worth 
the labour. Macronychus 4-tuberculatus, (aew to Britain,) taken in the 
Dove, near Burton-on-Trent; Bagous diglyptus, (recorded in the 
Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine, for March, 1879, as new to Britain and 
rare even on the Continent,) taken near Burton-on-Trent; and 
Cryptocephalus 10-punctatus, taken in Staffordshire a year after its first 
discovery at Rannoch by Dr. Sharp. 
I would strongly advise any one who takes up the Coleoptera to join 
with it the study of the Hemiptera or bugs. They are found for the 
most part under the same conditions, ard in the same places as the 
beetles, and are very easily mounted and preserved. Still more remains 
to be done in this group than among the Coleoptera, and any one 
working them thoroughly will be very likely to discover new species. 
By ordinary persons beetles and bugs are resolved into one species 
apiece—the black-beetle or cockroach, and the Cimez lectularius, to give it 
its polite name. But it will not take much study to find out that the 
former insect belongsto the Orthoptera, (grasshopper and cricket tribe,) 
and not to the Coleoptera, and is, therefore, not a beetle at all, and that 
the latter is an obscure member of a most beautiful and varied group of 
insects, whose usual habitat is widely differentfrom that of the obnoxious 
insect referred to. 
Believing that many more people would take up this study if they 
knew how to set about it, I venture to offer a few hints as to apparatus, 
mode of preservation and setting, localities, &c., and shall hope in a 
future paper to say more about beetles generally. 
1.—Apparatus.—This is very simple. An old umbrella and a good 
stick for beating, a brass Y to carry a round of cane for sweeping and 
water nets (the former to be made of unbleached calico and the latter of 
coarse cheese cloth) will be all required for summer work; while a fern- 
trowel, a sheet of brown paper, and, if possible, a sieve will be ample for 
winter. The bottle for holding the captures should have a wide cork, 
through which a quill or glass tube should be inserted, corked at the 
top, and through this tube all the beetles caught should be bottled, as 
some will be sure to escape if the large cork be frequently removed. A 
separate bottle should be carried for the larger beetles, as they are sure 
to injure the smaller ones if placed with them. 
P 
