1 1 6 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries. 



insect fauna, for it may roughly be divided into three districts, 

 which are quite distinct in general character ; to begin with, 

 there is the large coast line, bounded by great sand-dunes, on 

 which the low thickets of the buckthorn (Rhamnus catharticus) 

 and coarse reeds and grasses give shelter to numerous good 

 insects of various orders ; in passing, we may notice that these 

 dunes in summer are the haunt of the rare Natterjack Toad 

 (Bufo calamita\ which has been found by members of the 

 Union on summer excursions to Mablethorpe and the surround- 

 ing district ; in the second place there are large expanses of 

 what was formerly fen country but now is mostly drained ; 

 there are, however, many occasional ponds and marshy corners, 

 which, we may be sure, afford a last shelter to many of the 

 fen species, especially the water insects ; and, thirdly, there are 

 the higher districts, often well wooded, which present every 

 indication of an abundance of invertebrate life ; the woods 

 towards the west are apparently outlying remnants of the 

 ancient Forest of Sherwood, which besides containing many 

 good lepidoptera, is the sole, or almost the sole, habitat of 

 several of our rarest beetles ; we might, perhaps, almost regard 

 the banks of the Trent as a fourth district, for it has an insect 

 fauna of its own ; quite recently one of the least common 

 species of British Carabidae or ground-beetles, Bembidium 

 stomoldes, has been found in large numbers near Torksey Abbey 

 by the Rev. A. Thornley, who has done a great deal of good 

 work at the beetles of both Lincolnshire and Nottingham- 

 shire. 



If we look at a geological map of the county we shall find 

 that the whole south-eastern portion, comprising nearly one- 

 fourth of the county, is made up of drift or alluvial deposit ; 

 north of this, and running somewhat in a direction from N.W. 

 to S.E. are two broad strips of Upper Oolite and chalk, 

 separated by a narrow and irregular band of Lower Greensand ; 

 the western portion of the county is almost entirely taken up 

 by three fairly regular strips consisting of Lias on the extreme 

 west, then Lower Oolite and next Middle Oolite \ it would be 

 an interesting point to work out the distribution of the insect 

 fauna of these divisions ; in great measure, of course, it 

 depends upon the flora, which undoubtedly varies with the 

 geological formation, although Mr. Woodruffe-Peacock, who 

 has made this subject peculiarly his own, says that the presence 

 of humidity or dryness and the permeability or impermeability 

 of the soil has more to do with the matter than chemistry. 



