A PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE COLEOPTERA 
OF THE OXFORD DISTRICT. 
By JAMES J. WALKER, Hon. M.A., R.N., F.L.S., &c. 
AT the invitation of the Ashmolean Natural History Society 
of Oxfordshire, I have in the following pages attempted to 
enumerate the species of Coleoptera, or beetles, that up to the 
present date have been found in the immediate neighbourhood 
of Oxford. Since the early part of 1904, when I first “ pitched 
my tent” in the ancient city after my retirement from active 
service in the Royal Navy, and was privileged to be associated 
with the Society, I have devoted a large part of my time to 
the study of the Entomology of the neighbourhood, and as 
regards my favourite order of Insects, the Coleoptera, I have 
been rewarded with an unexpectedly large measure of success. 
But a period of less than three years is altogether inadequate, 
even for the most zealous of collectors, to do justice to the 
beetle-fauna of so rich and varied a district as the country 
within a few miles of Oxford undoubtedly is; and I should 
have been quite unable to undertake the compilation of this list, 
had not the way been paved for me by my kind friend Mr. W. 
Holland, of the University Museum, who has resided here since 
1893, and has assiduously worked up the local insect-fauna. 
The very full and most valuable catalogue of the Coleoptera of 
Berkshire, in the “ Victoria History of the Counties of England,” 
was compiled by Mr. Holland, and as at least half of the district 
now under consideration falls in that county, this catalogue 
has been of the greatest possible assistance in drawing up the 
present list. To Mr. Holland also, I owe my first introduction 
to nearly all the best localities near Oxford; and my other 
colleagues in the “ Hope Department,” Messrs. A. H. Hamm 
and Joseph Collins, have given me much kind help, and their 
captures of Coleoptera have added materially to the number 
of species recorded in this list. 
Besides the Coleoptera observed by us of late years, I have 
added to the list all the species recorded as taken near Oxford 
that I can gather from the various Entomological periodicals and 
other sources. The munificent founder of the Entomological 
department in the University Museum, the Rev. F. W. Hope, left 
