61 



with) the chrysocephala, Linn., found in abundance on 

 a Brassica along the ascent from the eastern landing- 

 place, varies "in every consecutive shade between the 

 limits of light yellow and dark metallic-green'*/' the 

 former of which states (the normal one on that rock) 

 might have been fairly set down as specifically distinct 

 from the latter, did not observation on the spot decide 

 the question for us without doubt. 



Another curious example of the effect of local in- 

 fluences (amongst which proximity to the shore plays, 

 in all probability, an important part) on the external 

 aspect of insects exists in the Aphodius plagiatus, Linn., 

 which in this country is generally deep black. " It is 

 a circumstance worth noticing," I remarked in the 

 ' Zoologist/ in 1846, "that the form which is looked 

 upon by the continental naturalists as the variety, is in 

 England evidently the typical one, for out of about 

 sixty specimens which I captured [at Tenby in South 

 Wales], only two possess the conspicuous red dashes on 

 the elytra which are considered abroad as the almost 

 invariable accompaniment." I have observed the same 

 peculiarity in the flat and damp spots between the sand- 

 hills at Deal, where I have never detected a single in- 

 dividual which is not perfectly dark ; and I believe that 

 the greater number of the specimens which were ori- 

 ginally taken at Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire, offered the 

 same geographical characteristics; whilst those which 

 were found near the more inland towns of Peterborough 

 * Zoologist, iii. p. 900. 



